Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 24 December 2010

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 24 December 2010 the increase of EUR 1 million in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) reflected the net purchase 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 0.5 billion to EUR 176.4 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 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 2.1 billion to EUR 325.1 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) increased by EUR 8.5 billion to EUR 842.3 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) increased by EUR 9.3 billion to EUR 79.7 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 41.8 billion to EUR 384.6 billion. On Wednesday, 22 December 2010, a main refinancing operation of EUR 187.8 billion matured and a new one of EUR 193.5 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 72 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 72.5 billion, with a maturity of one week. On Thursday, 23 December 2010, longer-term refinancing operations of EUR 200.9 billion, with maturities of three and twelve months, matured and a new one of EUR 149.5 billion, with a maturity of three months, was settled. On the same day, a liquidity-providing fine-tuning operation of EUR 20.6 billion, with a maturity of 13 days, was settled.

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 1.1 billion to EUR 134.5 billion as a result of settled purchases under the Securities Markets Programme. Therefore, in the week ending 24 December 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 73.5 billion and EUR 60.9 billion respectively. Both portfolios are accounted for on a held-to-maturity basis.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 0.8 billion (compared with EUR 1.3 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 55.4 billion (compared with EUR 40.3 billion in the preceding week).

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 60.6 billion to EUR 206.1 billion.