Government sells €1.7Bn in treasury bills

The Portuguese treasury institute has issued and sold €1.7Bn of six and 12 month treasury bonds on the market.

The bonds, put up for sale on Wednesday, are the first issue of 2019 but the interest rates on them are among the lowest from recent issues, the last of which was in November 2018.

The IGCP put €1.2Bn in 12 month treasury bonds with a liquidation date of 17 January 2020 at an interest rate of-0.36%.

In November, the treasury floated shares at-0.327% for the same 12 month period.

For the six month bonds issue, the treasury led by Cristina Casalinho issued €500 million with a maturity date of 19 July 2019 at-0.399%.

Investor appetite was, however, less than previous bond issues owing to such low interest returns.