The foreign assets of the Central Bank declined by $493 million, between the 15^th and 31^st of January, according to the bank’s Interim Balance Sheet that was issued yesterday. The shortfall represents the size of preventing a run on the lira during the political crisis of the past two weeks. But the figure does not represent the entire cost involved, said the head of the foreign exchange and money market division at a prominent bank. “The real figure probably exceeds one billion dollars,” he said. In addition to the traditional methods, the Central Bank uses financial tools that allow it a certain measure of control over the direction of the lira without leaving imprints on the balance sheet, he said. “Such tools have the advantage of allowing the Central Bank the ability to maintain the desired exchange rate without adjusting the interest rates,” he said. This can be done in a number of ways. One method is to impose a caveat on its intervention that keeps the foreign currency it deploys, the dollar in this case, inside the country. Another method is “recycling” the size of its intervention, which results in the return of the dollars it used to its coffers. And with the intensity of the crisis receding, the pressure on the lira eased, and the Central Bank began to buy back the dollars it spent in the previous two weeks,” he said.