Government misses T-Bills target for 3rd week running

Government missed its Treasury bills target for the third week running.

However, the interest cost of the 91-day T-Bills fell slightly [-0.01%] though that of the 182-day bill went up [0.04%].

According to the auctioning results, government could not meet its target of GH¢1.135 billion for both the 91-day and 182-day Treasury bills.

It however mobilized a little above GH¢1.003 billion cedis, about 11% below the targeted amount.

It also accepted all the bids from the investors, mostly commercial banks.

The past 3-weeks have seen liquidity tightened on the market, particularly on the interbank market. However, some may attribute the slightly below target performance to government’s strategy of keeping interest rates lower.

But interesting, government received GH¢785.92 million worth of bids for its one-year bill, which it accepted a little lower than the stated amount.

The interest cost was however 16.52%, higher than the 12.57% and 13.57% for the 3-months and 6-months bills respectively.

So overall, there appears some liquidity challenges on the market which has been predicated by the 2021 Budget of Fiscal Consolidation.

Source: Charles Nixon Yeboah