Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 3 December 2010

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 3 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) increased by EUR 0.4 billion to EUR 176.8 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 2.2 billion to EUR 320.6 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) increased by EUR 10.5 billion to EUR 824.5 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) decreased by EUR 20.7 billion to EUR 91.8 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 29.6 billion to EUR 373.7 billion. On Wednesday, 1 December 2010, a main refinancing operation of EUR 177.1 billion matured and a new one of EUR 179.7 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 66 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 67 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 2 billion to EUR 130.1 billion as a result of settled purchases under the Securities Markets Programme. Therefore, in the week ending 3 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 69.2 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 0.9 billion (approximately the same as in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 84.8 billion (compared with EUR 53.8 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 11 billion to EUR 185.8 billion.