On Thursday, December 4, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations (MRO) and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.05 per cent, 0.30 per cent and -0.20 per cent respectively.
ECB monetary operations
On Monday, December 1, the ECB announced its weekly MRO. The auction was conducted on Tuesday, December 2, and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €98.05 billion, €16.26 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 0.05 per cent, in accordance with current ECB policy.
On Wednesday, December 3, the ECB conducted a seven-day US dollar funding operation through collateralised lending in conjunction with the US Federal Reserve. This operation was carried out at a fixed rate of 0.63 per cent and did not attract bids from euro area eligible counterparties.
Domestic Treasury bill market
In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day and 182-day bills maturing on March 6 and June 5, respectively. Bids of €35.50 million were submitted for the 91-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €8.00 million, while bids of €44.35 million were submitted for the 182-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €17.00 million. Since €31.35 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €6.35 million, to stand at €234.64 million.
The yield from the 91-day bill auction was 0.080 per cent, i.e. 0.5 basis point lower than on bills with a similar tenor issued on November 28, 2014, representing a bid price of 99.9798 per 100 nominal. The yield from the 182-day bill auction was 0.115 per cent, i.e. 3.1 basis points lower than on bills with a similar tenor issued on November 7, representing a bid price of 99.9419 per 100 nominal.
During the week under review, there was no trading on the Malta Stock Exchange.
Today the Treasury will invite tenders for 28-day and 91-day bills maturing on January 9 and March 13, respectively.