Spanish treasury places €4.571bn at lower cost

The Spanish treasury placed on Tuesday 6 and 12-month treasury bills to the value of 4.571 billion euros (6.167 billion U.S. dollars), paying lower interest rates than in previous auctions and registering a high demand of 12.52 billion euros. A total of 817.09 million euros worth of 6-month treasury bills carried an average interest rate of 0.672 percent as opposed to the previous 0.911 percent of September. The remaining 3.753 billion euros worth of 12-month treasury bills fetched an average interest rate of 0.961 percent, below the 1.367 percent of the previous issue, with the marginal interest rate registering the lowest figure since 2010, 0.98 percent. The auction can be considered a success as the Spanish treasury exceeded expectations of placing between 3.5 and 4.5 billion euros paying lower yields and registering a high demand. So far the treasury has placed 109.253 billion euros of medium and long-term debt on the market, which is 90.1 percent of the total amount predicted for 2013. On Thursday the Spanish treasury expects to sell 3 and 5-year bonds valued at between 1.5 and 2.5 billion euros. (1 euro = 1.35 U.S. dollars)