Brussels, 26/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - During the previous week, the decrease of EUR 20 million in gold and gold receivables within the Eurosystem results from the sale of two tonnes carried out by a national central bank, indicated on Tuesday the European Central Bank (ECB). The net position of the Eurosystem in foreign currency rose EUR 0.7 billion, to EUR 274.7 billion due to customer and portfolio transactions. The ECB adds that holdings of marketable securities of Euro area residents denominated in Euro remained virtually unchanged (at EUR 28 billion), while notes in circulation and liabilities to general governments respectively fell by EUR 2.7 billion (to EUR 349.8 billion) and by EUR 1.3 billion (to EUR 32.1 billion).
Concerning the items related to monetary policy operations, the ECB provides the following estimates: - net lending to credit institutions fell by EUR 2.6 billion (to EUR 206.9 billion); - a main refinancing operation, for EUR 81 billion, matured and a new operation (for EUR 79 billion) was settled; - the used of the marginal lending facility reached a level close to zero, as recorded the previous week, while the use of the deposit facility was set at EUR 1.3 billion, against 0.8 billion, according to the previous situation. With regards to the current account of credit institutions, assets rose by EUR 3.2 billion, to EUR 130.4 billion.