T-bills auction: Government to borrow ¢1.67bn this week

Government will seek to borrow ¢1.67 billion from the treasury market this week.

This will be done via the issuance of the 91-day, 182-day and 364-day Treasury bills.

The uptake as usual will be partly used to refinance maturing bills worth ¢1.59 billion.

The government presently is in talks with external creditors to restructure its bilateral debt.

Analysts believe the financing assurances from external creditors will strengthen investor confidence and improve demand for treasury securities.

Last week, the government almost accepted all bids for the T-bills auction and raked in ¢1.86 billion out of total bids of ¢1.88 billion.

The proceeds surpassed the target amount of ¢1.77 billion.

However, interest rates rose marginally again as government recorded a slight oversubscription of its T-bills sale.

The rising rates was in tandem with the recent policy rate increase by the Central Bank.

The auction results showed that the yield on the 91-day T-bill went up by 0.31% to 19.69%, whilst that of the 182-day T bill increased to 22.24%, from 21.85% the previous week. The rate on the 364-day T-bill also surged to 26.95%.