ECB Monetary Operations

On Thursday, 2 April, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly main refinancing operation (MRO). The auction was conducted on Tuesday, 7 April and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €108.26bn, €4.67bn 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, 3 April, 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% 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 181-day maturing on 8 October. Bids of €55m were submitted for the bills, with the Treasury accepting €12m. Since €15m worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €3m, to stand at €205.14m.

The yield from the 181-day bill auction was 0.00%, down by 1 basis point from bids with a similar tenor issued on 27 March, representing a bid price of 100.00 per 100 nominal.

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

On Tuesday the Treasury invited tenders for 181-day bills, maturing on 15 October.