Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 6 January 2012

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 6 January 2012 the decrease of EUR 2 million in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) reflected the sale of gold coin by one Eurosystem central bank.

The net position of the Eurosystem in foreign currency (asset items 2 and 3 minus liability items 7, 8 and 9) decreased by EUR 1.6 billion to EUR 271.7 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) decreased by EUR 0.6 billion to EUR 344.1 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) decreased by EUR 4.9 billion to EUR 883.7 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) increased by EUR 14 billion to EUR 79.6 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 77.6 billion to EUR 160.1 billion. On Wednesday, 4 January 2012, a main refinancing operation of EUR 144.8 billion matured and a new one of EUR 130.6 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 211 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 211.5 billion.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 1.4 billion (compared with EUR 14.8 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 463.6 billion (compared with EUR 413.9 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 1 billion to EUR 274.8 billion. This increase was due to settled purchases under the Securities Markets Programme and the second covered bond purchase programme, as well as the redemption of securities under the first covered bond purchase programme. Therefore, in the week ending 6 January 2012 the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 213.1 billion, while those of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 58.7 billion and EUR 3.1 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 67.1 billion to EUR 156.5 billion.

Other issues

With respect to the consolidated weekly financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 30 December 2011, it should be noted that other liabilities (liability item 10) have decreased by EUR 0.1 billion and liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) have increased by the same amount, owing to the transfer of an outstanding amount to the relevant counterparty by one Eurosystem central bank.