Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 27 August 2010

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 27 August 2010 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) decreased by EUR 0.2 billion to EUR 191 billion on account of customer and portfolio transactions and US dollar liquidity-providing transactions (see below).

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 securities other than those held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.2) increased by EUR 1.2 billion to EUR 299.7 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) decreased by EUR 2.2 billion to EUR 813.4 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) rose by EUR 22.2 billion to EUR 101.1 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 25.3 billion to EUR 427.3 billion. On Wednesday, 25 August 2010, a main refinancing operation of EUR 155.2 billion matured and a new one of EUR 150.3 billion was settled. On the same date, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 60.5 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 60.5 billion, with a maturity of one week. On Thursday, 26 August 2010, a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 12.2 billion matured and a new one of EUR 19.1 billion was settled.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 1.4 billion (compared with EUR 0.3 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 102.7 billion (compared with EUR 74.2 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 142 million to EUR 121.9 billion as a result of settled purchases under the Securities Markets Programme. Therefore, in the week ending 27 August 2010 the value of the Securities Markets Programme portfolio and of the covered bond purchase programme portfolio amounted to EUR 60.8 billion and EUR 61.1 billion respectively.

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 45.6 billion to EUR 191.9 billion.