BoA’s weekly auction

TIRANA, Dec.12 – Albanian central bank’s net foreign exchange reserves rose by 0.4% to $1.301 billion (982.3 million euro) in October from $1.296 billion a month earlier and were above the monthly target, central bank statistics showed on Tuesday. Albania’s central bank auctioned on Tuesday 4.3 billion leks ($46.2 million/35 million euro) in three-month Treasury bills, on behalf of the Finance Ministry. The T-bills will be issued on December 14 and will mature on March 15 next year. BoA sold 3.6 billion leks ($38.4 million/29 million euro) worth of three-month government paper out of an initial offer of 4.3 billion leks. Dealers placed bids for the sold amount. The T-bills yielded an average 6.36%, up from 6.33% in the previous auction of three-month paper held last week. BoA also auctioned on Thursday 4.5 billion leks ($48 million/36.2 million euro) worth of two-year treasury notes.The T-notes, offered by the Finance Ministry, will be issued on December 18 and mature on December 18, 2008. The fixed-rate securities carry a 8.3 percent yield, to be paid semi-annually, on May 20 and November 20.