Gov’t exceeds T-Bills target by GHS 896m at costly interest rates of 36.9%
The 91 and 182 day treasury bills auctioned by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) on behalf of the government, saw some GHS 2,748 million mobilised as credit from investors to the government.
The secured GHS 2,748 million was against a programmed auction target of GHS 2,246 million.
Government, in accepting the GHS 2,748 million bids tendered, exceeded its target by GHS 896 million.
This, however, came at an increased cost to the government in the form of higher interest rates.
Interest rates on the 91 and 182 days T-Bills were 36.9% and 36.9% respectively.
This is the third time in a row that Government has exceeded its auction target.
The first time was last two weeks when Government exceeded its target by GHS 487m mobilising some GHS 1.65bn in total bids.
The second was last week Friday when Government mobilised funds in excess of GHS 2.39bn against a target of GHS 2.17bn.
Prior to that, the Government had for four consecutive weeks missed its auction targets.
Despite the increased interest rates on the 91 and 182 day T-Bills, the interest rates are less than the country’s inflation rate which currently stands at 40.4%.
This implies that, returns on government short term debt securities is still negative.
Meanwhile, government, in its next auction is aiming at raising some GHS 1,816 million from the issuance of the 91, 182 and 364 days T-Bills.
