ECB Monetary Operations

On Friday, 2 January, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly main refinancing operation (MRO). The auction was conducted on Monday, 5 January and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €112.33bn, €43.79bn 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%, in accordance with current ECB policy.

On Wednesday, 7 January, 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 0.61% 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 28- and 91-day bills maturing on 6 February and 10 April, respectively. Bids of €17m were submitted for the 28-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €2m, while bids of €34m were submitted for the 91-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €12m. Since €6m worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills increased by €8m, to stand at €157.44m.

The yield from the 28-day bill auction was 0.015%, i.e. 4.5 basis points lower than on bills with a similar tenor issued on 12 December 2014, representing a bid price of 99.9988 per 100 nominal. The yield from the 91-day bill auction was 0.035%, that is, 0.3 basis point higher than on bills with a similar tenor issued on 2 January, representing a bid price of 99.9912 per 100 nominal.

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

This week the Treasury will invite tenders for 91- and 182-day bills maturing on 17 April and 17 July, respectively.