Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 2 December 2011

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 2 December 2011 gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) remained unchanged.

The net position of the Eurosystem in foreign currency (asset items 2 and 3 minus liability items 7, 8 and 9) increased by EUR 0.8 billion to EUR 196.4 billion on account of customer and portfolio transactions and US dollar liquidity-providing operations (see below).

The liquidity-providing transactions were conducted by the Eurosystem in connection with the temporary reciprocal currency arrangement (swap line) that the European Central Bank (ECB) has with the Federal Reserve System.

The holdings by the Eurosystem of marketable securities other than those held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.2) increased by EUR 0.5 billion to EUR 338.1 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) rose by EUR 8.9 billion to EUR 874 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) decreased by EUR 35.4 billion to EUR 53.6 billion.

Items related to monetary policy operations

The Eurosystem’s net lending to credit institutions (asset item 5 minus liability items 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5 and 4) decreased by EUR 60.9 billion to EUR 128.8 billion. On Wednesday, 30 November 2011, a main refinancing operation of EUR 247.2 billion matured and a new one of EUR 265.5 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 194.5 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 194.2 billion. On Thursday, 1 December 2011, a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 49.4 billion matured and a new one of EUR 38.6 billion was settled.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 7 billion (compared with EUR 1.7 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 332.7 billion (compared with EUR 256.3 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 4.3 billion to EUR 267.6 billion. This increase was due to the net result of the settled purchases of EUR 3.7 billion under the Securities Markets Programme and of EUR 0.7 billion under the second covered bond purchase programme, as well as the redemption of securities under the first covered bond purchase programme. Therefore, in the week ending 2 December 2011 the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 206.9 billion, while that of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 59.1 billion and EUR 1.6 billion respectively. All three portfolios are accounted for on a held-to-maturity basis.

Current accounts of euro area credit institutions

As a result of all transactions, the current account position of credit institutions with the Eurosystem (liability item 2.1) decreased by EUR 31.2 billion to EUR 180.7 billion.