ZAGREB, April 27, 2020 – The Croatian National Bank (HNB) released HRK 1.17 billion (€155m) to commercial banks on Monday, through a regular open-market operation with a one-week maturity and at an interest rate of 0.05%.
Regular open-market operations are one of the measures taken by the central bank to increase the liquidity of the banking system for the purpose of maintaining exchange rate and financial stability amid the crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic in the country.
Today’s amount is HRK 100 million higher than last week, when HRK 1.07 billion (€141m) was released at 0.05% interest and with a maturity until April 29.
For today’s auction the HNB had received requests for a total of HRK 1.17 billion and granted them all. The settlement date is April 29 and the due date is May 6.
On March 16, the HNB conducted a structural operation, releasing HRK 3.8 billion (€500m) to the banks with a maturity of five years and at 0.25% interest.
In the past weeks the central bank has also undertaken other measures to increase the liquidity of the banking system, including purchases of government bonds. Last month it carried out two fine-tuning operations buying HRK 4.29 billion worth of government bonds. It has announced the next such auction for Tuesday.
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