On Thursday, October 22, the Governing Council of the Europ-ean Central Bank (ECB) 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, October 19, the ECB announced its weekly MRO. The auction was conducted the following day and attracted bids from euro-area eligible counterparties of €65.91 billion, €3.61 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, October 21, the ECB conducted a seven-day US dollar funding operation through collateralised lending in conjunction with the US Federal Reserve. This operation attracted bids of $0.14 billion, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.63 per cent.

Domestic Treasury bill market

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 28-day and 182-day bills maturing on November 19 and April 21, 2016, respectively. Bids of €23 million were submitted for the 28-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €2 million, while bids of €38 million were also submitted for the 182-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €13 million. Since €16 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €1 million, to stand at €199.15 million.

The yield from the 28-day bill auction was -0.011 per cent, down by 1.1 basis points from bids with a similar tenor issued on October 15, representing a bid price of 100.0009 per 100 nominal. The yield from the 182-day bill auction was 0.000 per cent, unchanged from bids with a similar tenor issued on August 28, representing a bid price of 100.0000 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 bills maturing on November 26.

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