The Treasury has returned to the debt markets this Tuesday to place 4,783 million euros in six- and twelve-month bills, which in the latter case are the favorites of individual investors. The strong demand has allowed it to very significantly reduce the cost of the one-year issue, despite the slight increase in the six-month issue.
Twelve-month bills have been placed at a marginal rate of 3.68%, barely two thousandths less than the 3.682% set at last month's auction, when the cost of this type of debt recorded its first decline so far of year.
The market forecast is that the ECB will not continue raising interest rates at its meeting this month and in the following ones much beyond the current 4.25%. The yield on twelve-month bills had approached 4% a few months ago, reaching 3.8%, the highest level in more than a decade.
Demand continues to be high, amounting to 5,989 million euros, which has made it possible to place letters for 3,679 million. Non-competitive requests, which are those that arrive through the web and correspond mostly to small investors, have been equivalent to 540 million euros.
The six-month bills have been placed at 3.679%, slightly above the 3.665% of the previous auction. In this case, letters have been issued for 1,104 million euros after the demand was placed at 2,723 million, of which 429 million correspond to non-competitive requests from individuals.
As occurred in the previous auction of three- and nine-month bills, the difference in profitability between the different time references is narrowing, which is an indication that investors are betting on greater stability in the cost of debt in the coming months.
With today's auction, the difference between the yield of the three-month bills, at 3.53%, and the twelve-month bill, at 3.68%, is barely 0.15 percentage points.
Little by little, the interests of bills and those of bank deposits are converging, although the former continue to be more profitable. According to the latest data from the Bank of Spain, the return on deposits was 2.33% in July.
