Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 29 October 2010

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 29 October 2010 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 0.2 billion to EUR 177 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 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 1.7 billion to EUR 313 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) increased by EUR 3.8 billion to EUR 815 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) increased by EUR 14.6 billion to EUR 109.8 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 420.3 billion. On Wednesday, 27 October 2010, a main refinancing operation of EUR 184 billion matured and a new one of EUR 183.4 billion was settled. Also on Wednesday, 27 October 2010, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 63.5 billion matured and new deposits were collected in the same amount, with a maturity of one week. On Thursday, 28 October 2010, a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 23.2 billion matured and a new one of EUR 42.5 billion was settled.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 0.3 billion (compared with EUR 0.9 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 50.3 billion (compared with EUR 25.7 billion in the preceding week).

Since there were no new settled purchases under the Securities Markets Programme in the course of the week, the holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) remained unchanged at EUR 124.3 billion. As a result, in the week ending 29 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. Both 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 25.3 billion to EUR 205.2 billion.