Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 1 March 2013

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 1 March 2013 the increase of EUR 1 million in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) reflected the purchase 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) increased by EUR 3.3 billion to EUR 218.6 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 0.9 billion to EUR 338.5 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) rose by EUR 3.6 billion to EUR 881.9 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) decreased by EUR 2 billion to EUR 80.4 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 40.7 billion to EUR 595.8 billion. On Wednesday, 27 February 2013, a main refinancing operation of EUR 132.2 billion matured and a new one of EUR 131.1 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 205.5 billion matured and new deposits were collected in the same amount, with a maturity of one week.

During the week, a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 7.4 billion matured and a new one of EUR 8.3 billion was settled, while EUR 62.8 billion was repaid before maturity.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 0.5 billion (compared with virtually nil in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 144.7 billion (compared with EUR 166.4 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) decreased by EUR 0.3 billion to EUR 269.6 billion. This decrease was due to the redemption of securities acquired under the first covered bond purchase programme. Therefore, in the week ending 1 March 2013, the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 205.3 billion, while the value of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 48 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 41.7 billion to EUR 374.2 billion.