Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 25 January 2013

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 25 January 2013 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 0.4 billion to EUR 218.7 billion on account of customer and portfolio transactions and US dollar liquidity-providing operations (see below).

US dollar liquidity operations

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 billion to EUR 307.5 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) fell by EUR 5.1 billion to EUR 881.9 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) increased by EUR 42.3 billion to EUR 126.1 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 17.8 billion to EUR 740.2 billion. On Wednesday, 23 January 2013, a main refinancing operation of EUR 131.2 billion matured and a new one of EUR 125.3 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 208.5 billion matured and new deposits were collected in the same amount, with a maturity of one week.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 2 million (compared with EUR 1 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 207.2 billion (compared with EUR 196.4 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) decreased by EUR 0.9 billion to EUR 275.2 billion. This decrease was due to the redemption of securities under the first covered bond purchase programme. Therefore, in the week ending 25 January 2013, the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 208.7 billion, while the value of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 50.2 billion and EUR 16.3 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 60.5 billion to EUR 479.5 billion.