ECB decisions

On Wednesday, 15 April, the Governing Council of the European 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%, 0.30% and -0.20% respectively.

 

ECB Monetary Operations

On Monday, 13 April, the ECB announced its weekly MRO. The auction was conducted on Tuesday, 14 April and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €96.56bn, €11.70bn 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, 15 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 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 15 October. Bids of €55.05m were submitted for the bills, with the Treasury accepting €20.05m. Since €24m worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €3.95m, to stand at €201.19m.

The yield from the 181-day bill auction was 0.00%, unchanged from the bids with a similar tenor issued on 10 April, representing a bid price of 100.00 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-day bills, maturing on 24 July.