On Monday, March 17, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced the weekly Main Refinancing Operation (MRO) through which the Eurosystem injects liquidity with a standard maturity of seven days into the euro area money market. This operation attracted bids for €295.7 billion from euro area eligible counterparties, with the ECB allotting €202 billion, or 68.3 per cent of the total amount bid for. The marginal rate, which is the rate at which the total tender allotment is exhausted, was set by the ECB at 4.16 per cent, four basis points higher than that of the previous week.

On Thursday, March 20, the ECB also announced a liquidity-providing fine-tuning operation through which it was prepared to inject funds on an overnight basis. This operation attracted bids for €65.8 billion from euro area eligible counterparties, with the ECB allotting €15 billion, or 22.8 per cent of the total amount bid for. The marginal rate was set by the ECB at 4.13 per cent. The previous ECB fine-tuning operation, held on March 11, had been a liquidity-injecting operation which also resulted in a marginal rate of 4.13 per cent.

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 183-day bills maturing on September 19. Out of the €15.9 million worth of bids submitted, the Treasury accepted bids for €9.9 million, or 62 per cent of the total. At the same time €22.3 million worth of bills matured during the week, reducing the outstanding balance of Treasury bills to €347.6 million.

The yield resulting from the auction was 4.330 per cent, 2.3 basis points higher than that on bills with a similar tenor issued on February 29. The latest yield represented a bid price of 97.8463 per 100 nominal.

Today the Treasury will invite tenders for 91-day bills maturing on June 27.

Treasury bill trading on the Malta Stock Exchange amounted to €1.2 million during the week, with all trades being conducted by the Bank in its role as market maker. No transactions were conducted off-Exchange.

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