On Monday, April 7, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly Main Refinancing Operation (MRO). This operation attracted bids for €247.6 billion from euro area eligible counterparties. The ECB allotted €130 billion, or 52.5 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 4.23 per cent, up two basis points from the rate that resulted from the MRO of the previous week.

On Friday, April 4, the ECB also announced that in conjunction with the Federal Reserve, it was to provide once again dollar liquidity through the Term Auction Facility (TAF) in order to contribute to satisfying the exceptional needs for dollar funding and to facilitate the further normalisation of conditions in the international money market. This operation attracted bids for $30.76 billion of which $15 billion was allotted, equivalent to 48.8 per cent of total bids. In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 182-day bills maturing on October 10. Out of the €63.5 million worth of bids submitted, the Treasury accepted bids for €43.5 million. Since €42.9 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills increased by €0.549 million to €317.6 million.

The yield resulting from the auction was 4.579 per cent, that is 2.49 basis points higher than that on bills with a similar tenor issued on March 20.

The latest yield represented a bid price of 97.7374 per 100 nominal.

This week the Treasury will invite tenders for 91-day bills maturing July 18. The following week the Treasury will once again invite tenders for 91-day bills maturing July 25.

There was no Treasury bill trading on the Malta Stock Exchange during the week. One off-exchange transaction amounting to €25,000 was conducted by the Bank in its role as market maker.