On Thursday, August 7, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations (MRO) and on the marginal lending facility and deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.15 per cent, 0.40 per cent and 0.10 per cent respectively.
ECB monetary operations
On Monday, August 4, the ECB announced its weekly MRO. The auction was conducted the following day and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €107.92 billion, €25.38 billion lower than the bid amount of the previous week. The amount was allotted in full at a fixed rate equivalent to the prevailing MRO rate of 0.15 per cent, in accordance with current ECB policy.
On Wednesday, August 6, the ECB conducted a seven-day US dollar funding operation through collateralised lending in conjunction with the US Federal Reserve. This operation attracted one bid of $0.08 billion, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.59 per cent.
Domestic Treasury bill market
In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 28-day bills and for 182-day bills maturing on September 5, and February 6, 2015, respectively. Bids of €2 million were submitted for the 28-day bills, with the Treasury accepting all of them, while bids of €46 million were submitted for the 182-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €10 million. Since €27 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €15 million, to stand at €371.57 million.
The yield from the 28-day bill auction was 0.200 per cent, i.e. 3.10 basis points higher than on bills with a similar tenor issued on June 27, representing a bid price of 99.9844 per 100 nominal. The yield from the 182-day bill auction was 0.322 per cent, i.e. 2.80 basis points lower than on bills with a similar tenor issued on July 25, representing a bid price of 99.8375 per 100 nominal.
During the week under review, there was no trading on the Malta Stock Exchange.
Today, the Treasury will invite tenders for 92-day bills maturing on November 14.