ECB Monetary Operations

On Monday, 6 July, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly main refinancing operation (MRO). The auction was conducted on Tuesday, 7 July and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €74.46bn, €1.95bn 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, 8 July, the ECB conducted a seven-day US dollar funding operation through collateralised lending in conjunction with the US Federal Reserve. This operation attracted bids of $0.31bn, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.63%.

Domestic Treasury Bill Market

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 90-day bills maturing on 8 October. Bids of €38m were submitted, with the Treasury accepting €25m. Since no bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills increased by €25m, to stand at €247.55m.

The yield from the 90-day bill auction was -0.025%, down by 2.2 basis points from bids with a similar tenor issued on 3 July, representing a bid price of 100.0063 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 90- and 272-day bills maturing on 15 October and 14 April 2016 respectively.