ECB decisions
On Thursday, 6 November, the Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) decided that the interest rate on the main refinancing operations (MRO) and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will remain unchanged at 0.05%, 0.30% and -0.20% respectively.
ECB Monetary Operations
On Monday, 3 November, the ECB announced its weekly MRO. The auction was conducted on Tuesday, 4 November and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €98.19bn, €19.96bn 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, 5 November, 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 0.58% 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 182-day bills maturing on 5 December and 8 May 2015, respectively. Bids of €44.35m were submitted for the 28-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €14.35m, while bids of €40.80m were submitted for the 182-day bills, with the Treasury accepting €13.64m. Since €35.42m worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €7.43m to stand at €253.99m.
The yield from the 28-day bill auction was 0.062%, that is, 2.4 basis points lower than on bills with a similar tenor issued on 31 October, representing a bid price of 99.9952 per 100 nominal. The yield from the 182-day bill auction was 0.146%, that is, 0.8 basis point lower than on bills with a similar tenor issued on 17 October, representing a bid price of 99.9262 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 28- and 91-day bills maturing on 12 December and 13 February 2015, respectively.