A tender of government treasury bills (issue number 107) was held at the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) this week. The total value of the allotted Treasury bills amounted to RO71.5mn, for a maturity period of 28 days (from December 16 until January 13). 

The average accepted price reached RO99.950 for every RO100 bill, and the minimum accepted price also arrived at RO99.950. The average discount rate and the average yield reached 0.65179 per cent and 0.65211 per cent, respectively.

The interest rate on the repo operations with the CBO is 0.5 per cent while the discount rate on the treasury bills discounting facility with the CBO is 1 per cent.

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 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.