FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The balance sheet of the European Central Bank and the euro zone's national central banks rose to 2.033 trillion euros (1.60 trillion pounds) in the week to Nov. 21, the ECB said on Tuesday.
The balance sheet, which includes money lent to banks, securities and other assets such as gold, rose by 5.008 billion euros from the previous week as banks took money at regular ECB lending operations.
The ECB is aiming to bring its balance sheet close to levels last seen in early 2012 - when it briefly topped 3 trillion euros - in order to rejuvenate debt markets and ultimately spur lending to business and bolster the economy.
In order to do this, it has started to buy covered bonds, debt secured by property, and re-bundled debt known as asset-backed securities.
The ECB's gold reserves were unchanged at 334.53 billion euros.
Net foreign exchange reserves in the Eurosystem of central banks rose by 1.2 billion euros to 229 billion euros, the ECB said.