Tender Results of Government Treasury Bills Worth RO 30mn Issued

Muscat: The total value of government treasury bills allocated this week amounted to RO 30 million. The statement issued by the Central Bank of Oman explained that the value of the bills allocated for a maturity period of 28 days amounted to 300 thousand Omani riyals, with an average acceptable price of 99.650 Omani riyals, and the lowest acceptable price reached 99.650 for every 100 Omani riyals, while the average discount rate reached 4.56250 percent, and the average return reached 4.57852 percent.

While the value of the bills allocated for a maturity period of 91 days amounted to 29 million and 700 thousand Omani riyals, with an average acceptable price of 98.780 Omani riyals, and the lowest acceptable price reached 98.770 per 100 Omani riyals, while the average discount rate reached 4.89199 percent, and the average return reached 4.95239 percent.

Treasury bills are a short-term secured financial instrument issued by the Ministry of Finance to provide investment outlets for licensed commercial banks, with the Central Bank of Oman acting as the issuance manager for these bills. The statement indicated that the interest rate on repurchase operations with the Central Bank of Oman (repo) on these bills is 6.00 percent, while the discount rate with the Central Bank on treasury bill facilities is 6.50 percent. Treasury bills have the feature of rapid liquidity by discounting them with the Central Bank of Oman, and by conducting repurchase (repo) transactions with the Central Bank as well.

Licensed commercial banks can also conduct repo operations among themselves on treasury bills in the interbank market. In addition, this tool contributes to creating a guiding indicator for short-term interest rates for the local financial market, and the government can resort to it to finance some of its expenses in a smooth and flexible manner.