For the first time this year, no one took part in the T-bills issue organised on Monday by the Finance Ministry, as banks are no longer interested in placing their money for low interest rates.
The Ministry tried to place T-bills due in six months, whose value amounts to 500 billion lei, the offered interest rate standing at 45%.
"Interests for one-day deposits on the interbanking market have stood today (i.e. yesterday) around 50-55%, therefore nobody wanted T-bills due in six months with an interest of 45%," Dragos Iliescu, UGBI Bank Romania deputy chairman and treasury manager, commented.
According to Iliescu, in the following period, interests will increase up to around 50-55% for three-month bonds, due to several changes occurred on the interbanking market.
"So far it has been the central bank that constantly bought foreign currency and placed lei on the market, therefore there always was more liquidity than needed.
This generated low interests. Now the situation has changed for NBR as it hasn't bought any foreign currency for a month or so," Iliescu added.
In September, one of the Finance Ministry's goals is to attract over 9,000 billion lei from the market. Given that banks have already made it clear that they wouldn't accept interests of 45% or lower, it is very likely for interest rates to significantly go up in the following period.
In his turn, Banca Transilvania chairman Iosif Pop believes that interest rates will be characterised by a slight increase in the following period as the state needs money, at least in September, therefore it has to accept the increase of T-bills interests.
"Let us bear in mind that the Finance Ministry wants to borrow 9,000 billion lei in September and has to return 6,000 billion lei, thus there is no turning back for the offered interests.
T-bills interests' ascending trend will influence both the interest rates offered to the population and those levied for credits. Toward the end of the year interests will stand at around 48-50%," Pop explained.
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