ECB decisions

On Thursday, 5 March, 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, 2 March, the ECB announced its weekly MRO. The auction was conducted on Tuesday, 3 March and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €147.85bn, €17.50bn 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, 4 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 0.62% 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 182-day bills maturing on 4 September. Bids of €35m were submitted, with the Treasury accepting €4m. Since €8m worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €4m, to stand at €206.44m.

The yield from the 182-day bill auction was 0.026%, that is, 0.4 basis point lower than on bills with a similar tenor issued on 27 February, representing a bid price of 99.9869 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 12 June and 11 September, respectively.