Such "heavy" currencies, mainly characteristic of European lands, show the employment of metals from which implements would normally be made.
To earn that hard currency, the Soviet economy has paid a very heavy price, experts said.
Meanwhile, monetary policy easing is constrained in countries with heavy foreign currency-denominated lending, like Hungary and Romania, where a weakening of the local currency could potentially trigger defaults, thereby shaking financial stability.
After coming under heavy selling pressure in recent weeks, it rallied more than 2.3% against a basket of other big currencies, the biggest percentage gain since October 2008.
With regard to the reduction of nearly eight million dollars in surplus reserves in the actual week-end statement this is not unusual for the opening week of February and the heavy receipts of currency from the interior always show a tendency to slacken this month.
But he was cautious when asked whether Asian governments should slow their heavy intervention in currency markets, which has held down the value of the Chinese renminbi in particular and has made Chinese and other Asian goods seem very inexpensive when exported to the West.
The dollar lost ground yesterday against all major currencies in heavy trading despite expectations that the currency would rise on new data showing that the nation's huge trade imbalance improved significantly in February.
There may be some political pressure from exporters to devalue, but there is none from heavy selling of the currency.
In fact, he said, Europe's exports to Asia have been buoyed by the Japanese central bank's frequent and heavy interventions in the currency markets.
The alleged leak, which Mr Pociatek denies, came to light after unusually heavy trading in the currency in the run-up to a 15% jump in the exchange rate that was announced on the evening of May 28th.
