The weighted average interest rate on the 28-day central bank bills has dropped to 7.75% at the auction held on Jan. 6, down 42 basis points from the previous sale held on Jan. 4. At the latest auction the amount on offer was MKD2 billion (€32.7 million, quite high), while the demand totaled MKD3.1 billion. The entire amount on offer was awarded. The outstanding amount of central bank bills is MKD9.53 billion presently. The monetary authority uses those bills to manage the liquidity of the banking system. The yield on those securities is considered opportunity cost by the country's commercial banks when they set their lending rates. As of end-October, the central bank has begun to sell the bills under new rules, which envisage offering fixed (rather than unlimited) amounts of bills and determining the yield on those securities through competitive bidding rather than fixing it at 10%.