Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 31 December 2007

On Monday, 31 December 2007, the increase of EUR 17.1 billion in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) mainly reflected quarterly revaluation adjustments, as well as the sale of gold by one Eurosystem central bank (consistent with the Central Bank Gold Agreement of 27 September 2004).

The net position of the Eurosystem in foreign currency (asset items 2 and 3 minus liability items 7, 8 and 9) decreased by EUR 3.4 billion to EUR 153.8 billion. The change was due mainly to the effects of the quarterly revaluation of assets and liabilities.

The holdings by the Eurosystem of marketable securities of euro area residents denominated in euro (asset item 7) fell by EUR 0.1 billion to EUR 96 billion, with a decrease of EUR 0.3 billion on account of transactions more than offsetting an increase caused by revaluations. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) decreased by EUR 1.9 billion to EUR 676.7 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) rose by EUR 1.2 billion to EUR 38.1 billion.

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 41.6 billion to EUR 525.3 billion. On Monday, 31 December 2007, a liquidity-absorbing fine-tuning operation of EUR 150 billion, conducted through the collection of fixed-term deposits, matured, while a new one of EUR 101.6 billion was settled on the same day.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 0.1 billion (compared with virtually nil in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 8.8 billion (compared with EUR 1.9 billion in the preceding week).

As a result of all transactions, the current account position of credit institutions with the Eurosystem (liability item 2.1) increased by EUR 44.2 billion to EUR 267.3 billion.

In line with the Eurosystem’s harmonised accounting rules, gold, foreign exchange, securities holdings and financial instruments of the Eurosystem are revalued at market rates and prices as at the end of each quarter. The net impact of the revaluation on each balance sheet item as at 31 December 2007 is shown in the additional column “ Difference compared with last week due to quarter-end adjustments”. The gold price and the principal exchange rates used for the revaluation of balances were as follows:

Gold: EUR 568.236 per fine oz.

USD: 1.4721 per EUR

JPY: 164.93 per EUR

Special drawing rights: EUR 1.0740 per SDR