ECB decisions

On Thursday, 3 September, 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, 31 August, the ECB announced its weekly MRO. The auction was conducted on Tuesday, 1 September and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €71.04bn, €1.44bn 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, 2 September, 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 $0.14bn, which was allotted in full at a fixed rate of 0.65%.

Domestic Treasury Bill Market

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 90-day bills maturing on 3 December. Bids of €3m were submitted, with the Treasury accepting them all. Since €9m worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €6m, to stand at €237.05m.

The yield from the 90-day bill auction was 0.030%, up by 5.3 basis points from bids with a similar tenor issued on 28 August, representing a bid price of 99.9925 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-day bills maturing on 10 December.