The BOT, Treasury Bills, has always been the preferred title by the Italians to park cash. At the last auction has offered a good annual return equal to 0.951%. In the face of an import of 6.5 billion offer, fully allocated, the request is amounted to over 10bn euros.

Many may ask why such high demands of Treasury bills even if the title has a yield very low compared to the returns of past years. The answer to this question is quite complex, but let's discuss the main factors that determine this situation.

Today we are experiencing one of the biggest financial crises in the world. Therefore many people are wanting to invest their cash in instruments that provide high reliability, convenience and safety. Instruments with these characteristics are certainly government bonds of euro area countries. Of course, often in the economy, a low yield corresponds to a high security in that particular financial instrument.

Another important factor concerns the low inflation that is emerging in all industrialized countries. In Europe we are beginning to glimpse financially deflation. The term deflation, in macroeconomics, means a general fall in prices. Deflation is triggered by weak demand for goods and services that triggers a fall in prices because the companies can no longer sell the goods produced. All this triggers, at a later time, the attempt by companies to reduce costs through lower prices for buying goods from other businesses and reducing labor costs. Is easily understood as the deflation, once triggered, it tends to spread in all economic sectors, causing a situation of economic depression. Therefore in a period of low inflation, the yield on the safest financial products need to be low, but this does not necessarily mean low returns because the latter must be linked to inflation.

In conclusion, the purchase of Treasury Bills is still a good investment because it assures reliability, convenience and safety.