On Monday, 8 December, the ECB announced its weekly Main Refinancing Operation (MRO). This attracted bids for e217.86 billion from euro area eligible counterparties, which amount was totally allotted, as pre-announced, at a fixed rate equivalent to the new main refinancing rate of 2.50%.

Also on Monday, 8 December, the Eurosystem and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) conducted a EUR/CHF foreign exchange swap, with a 7-day maturity, to provide Swiss Franc liquidity against euro. This operation attracted bids for e12.79 billion, which amount was also fully allotted at a fixed price of -6.19 swap points.

On Tuesday, 9 December, the ECB conducted a Special Longer-Term Refinancing Operation (STRO) with a 42-day maturity. In this STRO, the ECB received bids for e134.95 billion, which amount was fully allotted at a fixed rate equivalent to the ECB’s main refinancing rate of 2.50%.

Also on Tuesday, 9 December, the ECB announced two supplementary Longer-Term Refinancing Operations (LTROs), one with a maturity of 91 days and the other with a maturity of 182-days. In the case of the former the ECB received bids for e55.92 billion, whilst in the 182-day LTRO it received bids for e38.08 billion. All amounts were again fully allotted. Both LTROs were conducted at a fixed rate equivalent to the ECB’s main refinancing rate of 2.50%.

On the same day, being the end of the reserve deposit maintenance period, the ECB also conducted an overnight liquidity-absorbing Fine Tuning Operation. This was carried out at a variable rate with a maximum rate of 3.25%. In this operation the ECB received bids for e152.66 billion and accepted bids for e137.46 billion, or 90.04% of the total amount bid for. The marginal rate on the operation was set at 3.05%.

On Wednesday, 10 December, the ECB, in conjunction with the US Federal Reserve, conducted a 7-day US dollar funding operation through collateralised lending. This attracted bids for $57.43 billion, which amount was fully allotted at a fixed rate of 1.24%. In parallel with this operation, the Eurosystem also offered seven-day dollar liquidity through a EUR/USD foreign exchange swap operation which attracted bids for $0.82 billion, which amount was fully allotted at a fixed price of -1.75 swap points.

Domestic Treasury Bill Market

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day bills maturing on 13 March 2009.

Bids for e29.60 million were submitted, but none were accepted.

Since e3.42 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by e3.42 million to e363.23 million.

On Tuesday the Treasury invited tenders for 182-day bills maturing on 19 June 2009.

Treasury bill trading on the Malta Stock Exchange amounted to e4.33 million during the week, with e3.40 million trades being conducted by the Central Bank of Malta in its role as market maker. Off-Exchange transactions amounted to e912,000.