Central Bank of Oman allocates RO 83 million in treasury bills

MUSCAT : The CBO explained in its statement that the value of the allotted bills amounted to RO 10 million, for a maturity period of 28 days. The average accepted price and minimum price reached RO 99.685 for every RO 100, respectively, and the average return amounted to 4.11923 percent.

Whereas, the value of the allotted Treasury bills amounted to RO 37.5 million, for a maturity period of 91 days. The average accepted price reached RO 98.891, and the minimum accepted price arrived at RO 98.890 per RO RO 100. The average discount rate and the average yield reached 4.44792 percent and 4.49780 percent, respectively.

The value of the 182-day maturity bills amounted to RO 35.5 million, with an average accepted price of RO 97,721, and the lowest acceptable price of RO 97,715 per RO 100, while the average discount rate was 4.57083 percent, and the average return was 4.67744 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.

It may be noted that the interest rate on the Repo operations with CBO is 5.25 percent while the discount rate on the Treasury Bills Discounting Facility with CBO is 5.75 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 conduct repo transactions 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.