Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 9 December 2011

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 9 December 2011 the decrease of EUR 1 million in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) reflected the sale of gold coin by one Eurosystem central bank.

The net position of the Eurosystem in foreign currency (asset items 2 and 3 minus liability items 7, 8 and 9) increased by EUR 40.3 billion to EUR 236.7 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) decreased by EUR 0.1 billion to EUR 338 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) increased by EUR 5.6 billion to EUR 879.6 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) rose by EUR 8 billion to EUR 61.5 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 28.4 billion to EUR 100.4 billion. On Wednesday, 7 December 2011, a main refinancing operation of EUR 265.5 billion matured and a new one of EUR 252.1 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 194.2 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 207 billion.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 7.4 billion (compared with EUR 7 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 334.9 billion (compared with EUR 332.7 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 1.1 billion to EUR 268.7 billion. This increase was due to settled purchases of EUR 0.6 billion under the Securities Markets Programme and of EUR 0.4 billion under the second covered bond purchase programme. Therefore, in the week ending 9 December 2011 the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 207.6 billion, while that of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 59.1 billion and EUR 2.1 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 41.5 billion to EUR 139.2 billion.