Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 23 August 2013

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 23 August 2013 the increase of EUR 1 million in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) reflected the purchase of gold bullion by a 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 0.2 billion to EUR 211.5 billion on account of customer and portfolio transactions.

In the week ending 23 August 2013 the Eurosystem did not conduct any liquidity-providing transactions in connection with the temporary reciprocal currency arrangement (swap line) that the European Central Bank 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 0.6 billion to EUR 351.9 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) decreased by EUR 5.9 billion to EUR 918.3 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) increased by EUR 29 billion to EUR 86.7 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 6.6 billion to EUR 510.6 billion. On Wednesday, 21 August 2013, a main refinancing operation of EUR 97.6 billion matured and a new one of EUR 97.7 billion, with a maturity of one week, was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 192.5 billion matured and new deposits were collected in the same amount, with a maturity of one week.

During the week, EUR 0.7 billion of longer-term refinancing operations was repaid before maturity.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was virtually nil (compared with EUR 0.1 billion in the preceding week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 87.2 billion (compared with EUR 81.2 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) decreased by EUR 1.9 billion to EUR 250.6 billion. This decrease was due to the redemption of securities acquired under the Securities Markets Programme. Therefore, in the week ending 23 August 2013 the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 190.7 billion, while the values of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 44.1 billion and EUR 15.8 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 25.4 billion to EUR 256.1 billion.