Treasury bills sale fall short of target by 8.8% ; Government secures ¢1.25bn

Barley a day after the issuance of the 6-year bond was oversubscribed by 24%, the weekly Treasury bills sale to domestic investors fell short of its target by about 8.8%.

The slight reduction in the sale of the short term instruments may largely be due to government’s position of keeping interest yields lower in order to reduce the cost of servicing the debt instruments, going forward.

Indeed, the interest costs fell by 100 basis points the previous week’s trading to 12.45% and 13.21% respectively for the 91-day and 182-day T Bills.

Though the economy continues to expand, following easing of Covid-19 restrictions, there appears to be some challenges in the fiscal economy.

This comes after international ratings agency, Moody’s, last week reviewed Ghana’s ratings to B3 and outlook negative. It attributed the ratings to high debt burden, liquidity challenges, among others. Nonetheless, there is still some interest in financial instruments, because investors largely banks perceived the government instrument as risk free.

According to the trading figures, government mobilized ¢1.25 billion from the sale of the short term instruments.

For the first time in a long time, the 182-day was subscribed more than the 3-months bill.

Securities	Bids Tendered (GH¢)	Bids Accepted (GH¢)	Interest rate
91 Day Bill	551.76 million	551.76 million	12.45%
182 Day Bill	707.13 million	701.86 million	13.21%
Total	1.258 billion	1.253  billion
Target	1.380 billion

Source: myjoyonline.com