Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 26 April 2013

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 26 April 2013 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 1.4 billion to EUR 222.7 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 1.6 billion to EUR 346 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) increased by EUR 2.8 billion to EUR 897 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) decreased by EUR 6.8 billion to EUR 83.3 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 18.1 billion to EUR 540 billion. On Wednesday, 24 April 2013, a main refinancing operation of EUR 116.4 billion matured and a new one of EUR 110.4 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 206 billion matured and new deposits were collected in the amount of EUR 202.5 billion, with a maturity of one week.

During the week, a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 3.7 billion matured and a new one of EUR 3 billion was settled, while EUR 10.9 billion of longer-term refinancing operations was repaid before maturity.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was virtually nil (approximately the same as in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 109.7 billion (compared with EUR 105.6 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) remained unchanged at EUR 265.6 billion. Therefore, in the week ending 26 April 2013 the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 202.7 billion, while the values of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 46.8 billion and EUR 16.1 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 13.8 billion to EUR 316 billion.