Oman: CBO issues treasury bills worth $222.1mln

Muscat: The Central Bank of Oman (CBO) raised OMR85.5 million by way of allotting treasury bills on Monday.

The value of the allotted treasury bills amounted to OMR6.5 million, for a maturity period of 28 days. The average accepted price reached OMR99.647 for every OMR100, and the minimum accepted price arrived at OMR99.645 per OMR100. The average discount rate and the average yield reached 4.59760 per cent and 4.61387 per cent, respectively.

Whereas, the value of the allotted treasury bills amounted to OMR17 million, for a maturity period of 91 days. The average accepted price reached OMR98.745 for every OMR100, and the minimum accepted price arrived at OMR98.740 per OMR100. The average discount rate and the average yield reached 5.03497 per cent and 5.09898 per cent, respectively.

While, the value of the allotted Treasury bills amounted to OMR42 million, for a maturity period of 182 days. The average accepted price reached OMR97.450 for every OMR100, and the minimum accepted price arrived at OMR97.445 per OMR100. The average discount rate and the average yield reached 5.11449 per cent and 5.24833 per cent, respectively.

On the other hand, the value of the allotted treasury bills amounted to OMR20 million, for a maturity period of 364 days. The average accepted price reached OMR95.160 for every OMR100, and the minimum accepted price arrived at OMR95.160 per OMR100. The average discount rate and the average yield reached 4.85330 per cent and 5.10014 per cent, respectively.

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 (CBO) acts as the Issue Manager and provides the added 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 6.00 per cent while the discount rate on the Treasury Bills Discounting Facility with CBO is 6.50 per cent.

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.

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