The central bank bought treasuries from eight lenders and will sell them back March 18. The interest rate was 5.25%, equal to the monetary policy rate.
Market participants said the low demand could be due to an already excess liquidity in the market, considering that the finance ministry had to repay debt worth RON2.5 billion last week, with another bond issue worth RON2.6 billion due to mature later this week.
Last Monday, the central bank stopped limiting its repo operations for the first time in 21 weeks. The bank bought government paper worth RON7.33 billion from 13 lenders. (EUR1=RON4.3643)