Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 21 December 2012

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 21 December 2012 the increase of EUR 2 million in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) reflected the purchase of gold by one Eurosystem central bank and the purchase of gold coin by another Eurosystem central bank.

The net position of the Eurosystem in foreign currency (asset items 2 and 3 minus liability items 7, 8 and 9) decreased by EUR 2.5 billion to EUR 226.1 billion on account of customer and portfolio transactions and US dollar liquidity-providing operations (see below).

US dollar liquidity operations

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) decreased by EUR 0.1 billion to EUR 308.4 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) increased by EUR 11.9 billion to EUR 910.8 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) decreased by EUR 9.7 billion to EUR 105.9 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) increased by EUR 5 billion to EUR 684 billion. On Wednesday, 19 December 2012, a main refinancing operation of EUR 73.2 billion matured and a new one of EUR 72.7 billion, with a maturity of nine days, was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 208.5 billion matured and new deposits were collected in the same amount, with a maturity of nine days. On Thursday, 20 December 2012, a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 18.7 billion matured and a new one of EUR 15.0 billion was settled.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 13.9 billion (compared with EUR 0.3 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 229.4 billion (compared with EUR 225.1 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) decreased by EUR 0.2 billion to EUR 276.8 billion. This decrease was due to the redemption of securities under the Securities Markets Programme. Therefore, in the week ending 21 December 2012, the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 208.3 billion, while the value of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 52.1 billion and EUR 16.4 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 15.3 billion to EUR 489.7 billion.