Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 6 December 2013

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 6 December 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 0.3 billion to EUR 207.1 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 0.7 billion to EUR 350 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) increased by EUR 7.6 billion to EUR 935.1 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) decreased by EUR 19.2 billion to EUR 77.3 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 34.1 billion to EUR 470.8 billion. On Wednesday, 4 December 2013, a main refinancing operation of EUR 97.2 billion matured and a new one of EUR 94.6 billion, with a maturity of one week, was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 157.8 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 184 billion, with a maturity of one week.

During the week EUR 7.2 billion of longer-term refinancing operations was repaid before maturity.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 0.2 billion (compared with EUR 0.1 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 54.1 billion (compared with EUR 56.1 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) remained virtually unchanged at EUR 241.4 billion. Therefore, in the week ending 6 December 2013 the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 184.1 billion, while the values of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 41.9 billion and EUR 15.4 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 11.8 billion to EUR 203.7 billion.