Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 2 September 2011

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 2 September 2011 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 176.6 billion on account of customer and portfolio transactions.

The holdings by the Eurosystem of marketable securities other than those held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.2) decreased by EUR 0.5 billion to EUR 334.5 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) increased by EUR 2.8 billion to EUR 853.0 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) decreased by EUR 17.6 billion to EUR 44.9 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 43.4 billion to EUR 246.5 billion. On Wednesday, 31 August 2011, a main refinancing operation of EUR 133.7 billion matured and a new one of EUR 121.7 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 110.5 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 115.5 billion, with a maturity of one week. On Thursday, 1 September 2011, a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 48.1 billion matured and a new one of EUR 49.4 billion was settled.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was virtually nil (similar to the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 151.1 billion (compared with EUR 121.2 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 13.3 billion to EUR 188.6 billion. This increase was due to the net result of settled purchases under the Securities Markets Programme and the redemption of securities under the covered bond purchase programme. Therefore, in the week ending 2 September 2011 the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme and that of the portfolio held under the covered bond purchase programme totalled EUR 128.9 billion and EUR 59.7 billion respectively. Both 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 17.3 billion to EUR 179.7 billion.