At an auction on Tuesday the Finance Ministry sold 752 million kuna (€101.5 million) worth of treasury bills, falling short of its 1 billion kuna (€135 million) target, at a low 0.09 percent interest rate.

Ahead of the maturity date for 1.2 billion kuna (€162 million) bills, the ministry offered 1 billion kuna for sale, but financial institutions submitted bids for just 752 million kuna in treasury bills, with the ministry accepting all the bids.

The bills were issued with a maturity of one year and an interest rate of just 0.09 percent. The low interest rate is not surprising, given the hefty kuna liquidity surplus of 22.5 billion kuna (€3 billion) or 6.3 percent of the national GDP, as well as favourable fiscal indicators.

The interest rate remained unchanged from the last 11 auctions.

With the 1.2 billion kuna bills falling due, the balance of subscribed treasury bills will be reduced by 448 million kuna (€60.4 million) to 17.8 billion kuna (€2.4 billion).

The next auction is expected on August 28.

(€1 = 7.41 kuna)

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