In the first week of January the assets of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) Issue Department decreased by some BGN 359 million, reaching BGN 12.883 billion, data by January 7 show. That was mainly due to a drop in sales of reserve currency on the interbank lev-euro market, following bigger demand for euro by banks. Last week the BNB sold a net EUR 164 million to banks. Money in circulation also continued decreasing, dropping by some BGN 101 million between January 3 and 7.