CBO raises Ro33mn via treasury bills
The Central Bank of Oman (CBO) on Monday announced the issuance of government treasury bills worth Ro33mn. The treasury bills were issued in two maturity periods – 28 days and 91 days.
The value of the allotted treasury bills amounted to Ro8mn, for a maturity period of 28 days.
The average accepted price reached RO99.645 for every RO100, and the minimum accepted price arrived at RO99.645. The average discount rate and the average yield reached 4.6276% and 4.6441%, respectively.
The value of the allotted treasury bills amounted to Ro25mn, for a maturity period of 91 days.
The average accepted price reached RO98.747 for every RO100, and the minimum accepted price arrived at RO98.730. The average discount rate and the average yield reached 5.0265% and 5.0903%, respectively.
The interest rate on the Repo operations with CBO is 6.00% while the discount rate on the Treasury Bills Discounting Facility with the central bank is 6.50%. Treasury bills are short-term highly secured financial instruments issued by the Ministry of Finance, and they provide licensed commercial banks the opportunity to invest their surplus funds. The CBO acts as the Issue Manager and provides the added advantage of ready liquidity through discounting and repurchase facilities (Repo).
Furthermore, treasury bills promote the local money market by creating a benchmark yield curve for short-term interest rates. Additionally, the government may also resort to this instrument whenever felt necessary for financing its recurrent expenditures.