ECB Monetary OperationsOn Monday, 16 March, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly main refinancing operation (MRO). The auction was conducted on Tuesday, 17 March and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €142.40bn, €0.56bn higher 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, 18 March, 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% and did not attract bids from euro area eligible counterparties.

Furthermore, on Thursday, 19 March, the ECB conducted the third Targeted Longer Term Refinancing Operation, as announced in the press release of Thursday, 5 June 2014. This operation attracted bids of €97.85bn, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.05%.

 Domestic Treasury Bill Market

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day bills maturing on 19 June. Bids of €60m were submitted for the 91-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €2m. Since €2m worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills remained unchanged at €205.14m.

The yield from the 91-day bill auction was 0.001%, that is, 2.1 basis points lower than on bills with a similar tenor issued on 13 March, representing a bid price of 99.9997 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 26 June and 25 September, respectively.