Decrease in marginal rate in weekly Main Refinancing Operation
Eurosystem monetary operations
On Monday, June 9, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced its weekly Main Refinancing Operation (MRO). This attracted bids for €202.78 billion from euro area eligible counterparties, with the ECB allotting €191 billion, or 94.2 per cent of the total amount bid for.
The marginal rate on the operation, that is the rate at which the total tender allotment was exhausted, was set by the ECB at 4.03 per cent, 14 basis points lower than the marginal rate resulting from the MRO of the previous week.
On Tuesday, June 10, the ECB launched a supplementary Longer-Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) with a maturity of three months. This operation attracted bids for €99.78 billion from euro area eligible counterparties, with the ECB allotting €50 billion, or 50.1 per cent of the total amount bid for. The marginal rate on this operation was set by the ECB at 4.60 per cent, nine basis points higher than the marginal rate resulting from the LTRO of May 29.
On the same day, the ECB also launched a liquidity-absorbing fine-tuning operation. This attracted bids for €18.5 billion from euro area eligible counterparties, with the ECB allotting €14 billion, or 73.7 per cent of the total amount bid for. These deals were conducted at a fixed rate of four per cent.
In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day bills maturing on September 12. Bids for €38.78 million were submitted, with the Treasury accepting €28.31 million. Since €4.4 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills increased by €23.9 million to €402.58 million.
The yield resulting from the auction was 4.888 per cent, 8.1 basis points higher than that on bills with a similar tenor issued on June 6. The latest yield represented a bid price of 98.7795 per 100 nominal.
Today the Treasury will invite tenders for 182-day bills maturing on December 19, and the following week it will invite tenders for 91-day bills maturing on September 26.
Treasury bill trading on the Malta Stock Exchange amounted to €1.26 million, while off-Exchange transactions amounted to €87,000. All trades were conducted by the Central Bank of Malta in its role as market-maker.