CBO issues treasury bills worth OMR26.4 million

Muscat: The Central Bank of Oman has allocated government treasury bills amounting to OMR26.4 million.

The value of the allotted treasury bills amounted to OMR150,000 for a maturity period of 28 days. The average accepted price reached OMR99.750 for every OMR100, and the minimum accepted price arrived at OMR99.750 per OMR100. The average discount rate and the average yield reached 3.25893% and 3.26710%, respectively.

The value of the allotted treasury bills amounted to OMR21 million, for a maturity period of 91 days. The average accepted price reached OMR98.976 for every OMR100, and the minimum accepted price arrived at OMR98.975 per OMR100. The average discount rate and the average yield reached 4.10649% and 4.14897%, respectively.

The value of the allotted treasury bills amounted to OMR4.7 million, for a maturity period of 182 days. The average accepted price reached OMR97.869 for every OMR100, and the minimum accepted price arrived at OMR97.850 per OMR100. The average discount rate and the average yield reached 4.27341% and 4.436647%, respectively.

On the other hand, the value of the allotted treasury bills amounted to OMR550,000 for a maturity period of 364 days. The average accepted price reached OMR95.900 for every OMR100, and the minimum accepted price arrived at OMR95.900 per OMR100. The average discount rate and the average yield reached 4.11126% and 4.28703%, respectively.

The 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 Central Bank of Oman acts as the Issue Manager and provides theadded advantage of ready liquidity through discounting and repurchase facilities (Repo).

It may be noted that the interest rate on the Repo operations with CBO is 5.00% while the discount rate on the Treasury Bills Discounting Facility with CBO is 5.50%.

Furthermore, the 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.