ECB Monetary Operations

On Monday, 7 September, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly main refinancing operation (MRO). The auction was conducted on Tuesday, 8 September and attracted bids from euro area eligible counterparties of €70.91bn, €0.13bn 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, 9 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 0.66%.

Domestic Treasury Bill Market

In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 90-day bills maturing on 10 December. Bids of €18m were submitted, with the Treasury accepting all bids. Since €15m worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills increased by €3m, to stand at €240.05m.

The yield from the 90-day bill auction was 0.017%, down by 1.3 basis points from bids with a similar tenor issued on 4 September, representing a bid price of 99.9958 per 100 nominal.

During the week under review, there was no trading on the Malta Stock Exchange.