Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 17 December 2010

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 17 December 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 0.5 billion to EUR 176 billion on account of customer and portfolio transactions and US dollar liquidity-providing operations (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 marketable securities other than those held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.2) increased by EUR 1.6 billion to EUR 323 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) increased by EUR 5.4 billion to EUR 833.8 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) decreased by EUR 26.2 billion to EUR 70.4 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 27.9 billion to EUR 426.3 billion. On Wednesday, 15 December 2010, a main refinancing operation of EUR 197.3 billion matured and a new one of EUR 187.8 billion was settled. Also on Wednesday, 15 December 2010, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 69 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 72 billion, with a maturity of one week.

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 0.6 billion to EUR 133.4 billion as a result of settled purchases under the Securities Markets Programme. Therefore, in the week ending 17 December 2010 the value of the accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme and that of the portfolio held under the covered bond purchase programme totalled EUR 72.4 billion and EUR 60.9 billion respectively. Both portfolios are accounted for on a held-to-maturity basis.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 1.3 billion (compared with EUR 0.6 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 40.3 billion (compared with EUR 24.1 billion in the preceding week).

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 1.4 billion to EUR 266.7 billion.