Brussels, 11/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - In its bulletin on the consolidated financial situation of the Eurosystem on 6 July, the European Central Bank states that the net position of the Eurosystem in foreign currency increased by 0.2 billion euro, at 273.7 billion euro, following customer and portfolio transactions. Regarding items not related to monetary policy operations, the holdings by the Eurosystem of marketable securities of euro area residents denominated in euro rose by 0.4 billion euro (28.1 billion), banknotes in circulation increased by 3.4 billion euro (353.6 billion euro) and liabilities to general government decreased by 25 billion euro, to 38.9 billion.
Regarding items related to monetary policy operations, the Eurosystem's net lending to credit institutions decreased by 9.9 billion euro (222.2 billion), and a refinancing operation (91 billion euro) matured, while a new refinancing operation of 81 billion euro was settled. In addition, recourse to the marginal lending facility was 0.2 billion euro (approximately the same as the preceding week), whereas recourse to the deposit facility was 0.1 billion euro (against 0.3 billion the previous week). Concerning current accounts of euro area credit institutions, the current account position of credit institutions with the Eurosystem increased by 15 billion euro, to 132.6 billion.