Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 1 October 2010

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 1 October 2010 the decrease of EUR 17.5 billion in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) reflected quarterly revaluation adjustments.

The net position of the Eurosystem in foreign currency (asset items 2 and 3 minus liability items 7, 8 and 9) decreased by EUR 14.5 billion to EUR 176.8 billion. The change was due to the effects of the quarterly revaluation adjustments of assets and liabilities, as well as to customer and portfolio transactions carried out by Eurosystem central banks and to 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 has with the Federal Reserve System.

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities other than those held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.2) increased by EUR 0.5 billion to EUR 307 billion mainly on account of customer and portfolio transactions. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) increased by EUR 2.8 billion to EUR 814.8 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) decreased by EUR 6.5 billion to EUR 98.1 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 43.7 billion to EUR 403.1 billion. On Wednesday, 29 September 2010, a main refinancing operation of EUR 153.8 billion matured and a new one of EUR 166.4 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 61.5 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 61.5 billion, with a maturity of one week. On Thursday, 30 September 2010, longer-term refinancing operations of EUR 225.1 billion, with maturities of three, six and twelve months, matured and a new one of EUR 104 billion, with a maturity of three months, was settled. On the same day, a liquidity-providing fine-tuning operation of EUR 29.4 billion, with a maturity of six days, was settled.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 1.6 billion (compared with EUR 1.2 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 49.5 billion (compared with EUR 84.1 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 1,535 million to EUR 124.3 billion. This is due to settled purchases of EUR 1,384 million under the Securities Markets Programme and to quarter-end adjustments of EUR 151 million. Therefore, in the week ending 1 October 2010 the value of the accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme and that of the portfolio held under the covered bond purchase programme totalled EUR 63.3 billion and EUR 61 billion respectively. The portfolios held under both the Securities Markets Programme and the covered bond purchase programme 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 30.8 billion to EUR 190.3 billion.

Quarter-end revaluation of the Eurosystem’s assets and liabilities

In line with the Eurosystem’s harmonised accounting rules, gold, foreign exchange, securities holdings and financial instruments of the Eurosystem are revalued at market rates and prices as at the end of each quarter. The net impact of the revaluation on each balance sheet item as at 1 October 2010 is shown in the additional column “ Difference compared with last week due to quarter-end adjustments”. The gold price and the principal exchange rates used for the revaluation of balances were as follows:

Gold: EUR  960.580 per fine oz.

USD: 1.3648 per EUR

JPY: 113.68 per EUR

Special drawing rights: EUR 1.1399 per SDR