The interest rate for treasury bills put up for sale by the Ministry of Finance registered a steep upward trend over the past three months. During the year, the monthly interest rate on the primary market of this type of state securities was characterized by moderate developments. Following the end in the downward trend started in July 2017, between April and September of the current year, the average monthly interest rate on the 91-day treasury bills increased by 0.28 percentage points. n the coming months, between October - December (early days of the month), the increase was already 0.60 percentage points. However, the factor that needs to be observed is the evolution of the margin between the interest rate on the state treasury bills, according to their term. The margin between the treasury interest rates issued by the Ministry of Finance with the term of 91 days for the 364-day treasury bills increases rapidly. This was 0.72 percentage points at the end of September, reaching 1.64 percentage points on the first days of December (according to the latest available data).

The upward trend in interest rate on treasury bills put up for sale by the Ministry of Finance is even more evident if it relates to the annual inflation rate for that month. Thus, if for October 2017 the margin between the annual inflation rate and the interest rate on state treasury bills was (-) 1.8 percentage points for the 91-day treasury bills and (-) 1 , 4 percentage points in the case of 364-day treasury bills, in October this year they were already 2.92 percentage points in the case of Treasury bills with a term of 91 days and 3.89 percentage points for the 364-day treasury bills.

Similar situation is recorded for other categories of government securities. Is it just the pre-election period that is responsible for these developments?