Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 26 August 2011

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 26 August 2011 the decrease of EUR 4.0 million in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) reflected the sale of gold by one Eurosystem central bank (consistent with the Central Bank Gold Agreement that came into effect on 27 September 2009) and gold coin trading 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 0.8 billion to EUR 176.8 billion on account of customer and portfolio transactions and as a result of a US dollar liquidity-providing operation. On 25 August 2011 a seven-day operation of USD 0.5 billion matured. This operation was conducted by the Eurosystem in connection with the temporary reciprocal currency arrangements (swap line) that the European Central Bank has established 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 0.3 billion to EUR 335.0 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) decreased by EUR 4.4 billion to EUR 850.2 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) increased by EUR 10.9 billion to EUR 62.5 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 46.4 billion to EUR 289.9 billion. On Wednesday, 24 August 2011, a main refinancing operation of EUR 147.7 billion matured and a new one of EUR 133.7 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 96.0 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 110.5 billion, with a maturity of one week.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was nil (compared with EUR 0.1 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 121.2 billion (compared with EUR 105.9 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 5.3 billion to EUR 175.3 billion. This increase was due to the net result of settled purchases under the Securities Markets Programme and the redemption of securities under the Securities Markets Programme. Therefore, in the week ending 26 August 2011 the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme and that of the portfolio held under the covered bond purchase programme totalled EUR 115.6 billion and EUR 59.7 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 47.8 billion to EUR 197.0 billion.