ECB: increase of oz7,4 million in gold and gold receivables over the last quarter

4 April 2012 - Consolidated financial statement of the Eurosystem as at 30 March 2012

Items not related to monetary policy operations

In the week ending 30 March 2012 the increase of EUR 9.3 billion in gold and gold receivables (asset item 1) reflected quarterly revaluation adjustments.

The net position of the Eurosystem in foreign currency (asset items 2 and 3 minus liability items 7, 8 and 9) decreased by EUR 22.4 billion to EUR 228.1 billion. This change was due to the effects of the quarterly revaluation of assets and liabilities, the customer and portfolio transactions carried out by Eurosystem central banks during the period under review 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 0.4 billion to EUR 347.3 billion. Banknotes in circulation (liability item 1) rose by EUR 2.9 billion to EUR 869.9 billion. Liabilities to general government (liability item 5.1) decreased by EUR 19 billion to EUR 137.5 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) increased by EUR 8.8 billion to EUR 161.1 billion. On Wednesday, 28 March 2012, a main refinancing operation of EUR 59.5 billion matured and a new one of EUR 61.1 billion was settled. On the same day, fixed-term deposits in an amount of EUR 218 billion matured and new deposits were collected in an amount of EUR 213.5 billion, with a maturity of one week. On Thursday, 29 March 2012, a longer-term refinancing operation of EUR 29.7 billion matured and a new one of EUR 25.1 billion was settled.

Recourse to the marginal lending facility (asset item 5.5) was EUR 1.6 billion (compared with EUR 0.8 billion in the previous week), while recourse to the deposit facility (liability item 2.2) was EUR 778.7 billion (compared with EUR 785.4 billion in the preceding week).

The holdings by the Eurosystem of securities held for monetary policy purposes (asset item 7.1) increased by EUR 0.8 billion to EUR 280.2 billion, owing to settled purchases under the second covered bond purchase programme and quarter-end adjustments. Therefore, in the week ending 30 March 2012 the value of accumulated purchases under the Securities Markets Programme amounted to EUR 214.2 billion, while those of the portfolios held under the first and second covered bond purchase programmes totalled EUR 56.8 billion and EUR 9.2 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) increased by EUR 19.4 billion to EUR 108.7 billion.

Quarter-end revaluation of the Eurosystem’s assets and liabilities

In line with the Eurosystem’s harmonised accounting rules, gold, foreign exchange, securities holdings and financial instruments of the Eurosystem are revalued at market rates and prices as at the end of each quarter. The net impact of the revaluation on each balance sheet item as at 31 March 2012 is shown in the additional column “Difference compared with last week due to quarter-end adjustments”. The gold price and the principal exchange rates used for the revaluation of balances were as follows:

Gold: EUR 1,243.449 per fine oz.

USD: 1.3356 per EUR

JPY: 109.56 per EUR

Special drawing rights: EUR 1.1607 per SDR

Full press release here