On Wednesday, April 15, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank decided that the interest rates on the main refinancing operations (MRO), on the marginal lending facility and on 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, April 13, the ECB announced its weekly MRO. The auction was conducted on Tuesday, April 14, and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €96.56 billion, €11.70 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, April 15, 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 0.62 per cent and once again 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 181-day maturing on October 15. Bids of €55.05 million were submitted for the bills, with the Treasury accepting €20.05 million. Since €24 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €3.95 million, to stand at €201.19 million.

The yield from the 181-day bill auction was 0.00 per cent, unchanged from the bids with a similar tenor issued on April 10, representing a bid price of €100 per 100 nominal.

During the week under review, there was no trading on the Malta Stock Exchange.

Today, the Treasury will invite tenders for 91-day bills, maturing on July 24.