Spanish treasury places €3.49bn on market at lower rates

The Spanish treasury on Thursday placed treasury bonds worth 3.49 billion euros (3.9 billion U.S. dollars) at lower interest rates than in previous auctions.

A total of 1.582 billion euros worth of 10-year treasury bonds carried an average interest rate of 1.917 percent, falling slightly from the 2.099 percent of the previous issue.

A further 1.13 billion euros worth of treasury bonds maturing in 2024 carried an average interest rate of 1.712 percent, while the remaining 778.25 million euros worth of three-year treasury bonds fetched an average interest rate of 0.342 percent, below the 0.395 percent of the previous issue held in July.

So far, the Spanish treasury has placed 104.2 billion euros of medium and long term bonds on the market, which represented 73.4 percent of the country's financial goals for the year, 141.996 billion euros.

The Spanish treasury does not usually hold many auctions in August due to the holidays and the low interest in bonds by investors. However, this year, it expects to place between 6.402 billion euros and 7.402 billion euros on the market in August, a historical amount.

According to experts, the Treasury wants to cover Spain's financial needs as soon as possible in order to avoid possible effects of the general elections in Spain, which will be held before the end of the year. (1 euro=1.12 U.S. dollars)