Gold and gold receivables held by euro zone central banks fell by 4 million euros to 363.248 billion euros in the week ending Aug. 26, the European Central Bank said Tuesday.

Net foreign exchange reserves in the Eurosystem of central banks fell by 0.8 billion euros to 176.8 billion euros, the ECB said in its regular weekly consolidated financial statement.

Gold holdings fell because of the sale of gold by one euro zone central bank, consistent with the 2009 Central Bank Gold Agreement, and gold coin trading by another, the ECB said.

The combined balance sheet of the ECB and the 17 euro zone national central banks decreased in size by 5 billion euros, to just over 2 trillion euros, it added.

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