Trading activity on the Slovak interbank market was extremely low on Wednesday. Commercial banks deposited SKK 21.316 billion in their reserve accounts in the central bank on Wednesday, meeting the minimum reserve requirement on a cumulative basis at 100.68 percent. According to CSOB dealer Miroslav Zuzic, banks are waiting for an auction of central bank bills on Thursday. The new bills should replace the maturing issue of SKK 17.2 billion. The dealer expects bids by commercial banks to significantly exceed SKK 20 billion.

The Finance Ministry will hold an auction of two-year government bonds with a coupon of 4.9 percent on Monday. This will be the second part of an open issue, through which the Finance Ministry wants to acquire SKK 5 billion. „During the first auction the ministry obtained SKK 5 billion into the state treasury in this way; the planned volume of the issue is as high as SKK 15 billion,“ said Mr. Zuzic.

On Wednesday, overnights and tom/nexts were quoted at 5.1/5.2 percentage points. Spot/nexts and crown deposits with maturity up to one month were at 6.15/6.3 percent p.a. due to the expected auction of central bank bills. Two to three-month deposits were traded at 6.15/6.25 percent p.a. Six-month deposits were available at 5.65/5.8 percent p.a., nine-month funds at 5.55/5.75 percent p.a. and the price of twelve-month funds was stable at 5.4/5.6 percent p.a.