KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 27  — Short-term rates are expected to be stable next week with Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) likely to intervene by offering tenders to absorb surplus liquidity from the system.

During the week just-ended, BNM increased the overnight policy rate (OPR) by 25 basis points to 3.25 per cent at its Monetary Policy Meeting on Thursday, as it decided to normalise the degree of monetary accommodation amid the economy being firmly on a steady growth path.

The last time it changed its OPR was in July 2016 when it made a 25-basis-point cut.

For the week just-ended, the overnight rate was at 2.93 per cent, while the one-, two— and three-week rates stood at 3.03 per cent, 3.08 per cent and 3.18 per cent, respectively.

BNM intervened on a daily basis to mop up excess liquidity by conducting conventional money market tenders, range maturity auction tenders, Islamic range maturity auction Qard tenders and reverse repo tenders.

It also held Commodity Murabahah Programme tenders, Qard tenders and Qard money market tenders.

The total liquidity surplus in the conventional system for the week advanced to RM41.54 billion from RM28.62 billion last week, while in the Islamic system, it rose to RM9.32 billion from RM9.17 billion previously.

The benchmark three-month Kuala Lumpur Interbank Offered Rates stood at 3.68 per cent. — Bernama