Treasury gulps GHS 5.2bn in T-Bill auction after $600m second tranche disbursement
The Bank of Ghana’s Treasury bills auction target of GHS 3,058 million received GHS 2,210 million bids more from primary dealers last week.
Bids amounting to GHS 5,268 million made by primary dealers were accepted by the Treasury on Friday’s auction.
The oversubscription of the Treasury’s short-term debt signals investor confidence in the Government’s debt management programme to return the country to debt sustainability, particularly following the approval and subsequent disbursement of the country’s second $600m tranche by the IMF.
According to the IMF Board, Ghana’s performance under the program has been strong. All quantitative performance criteria for the first review and almost all indicative targets and structural benchmarks have been met.
Among the various tenors, the 91-day Bill attracted the highest number of bids followed by the 182-Day Bill and the 364-Day Bill.
The successful bids after the auction amounted to GHS 2,632 million, GHS 1,324 million, and GHS 1,312 million for the 91–Day, 182-Day, and 364-Day tenors respectively.
The auction yields settled at averages of 28.88% for the 91-Day Bill and 31.39% for the 182-Day Bill with both declining by 31bps and 35bps respectively compared to the average rates for the previous auction.
The 364-Day bill also saw a yield decline of 35bps to settle at 31.99%.
Looking ahead to the next auction, the treasury aims to raise some GHS 2,532 million through the issuance of the 91,182, and 364 Day bills to cater for impending maturities.
Meanwhile, the Government has earmarked some GHS 55.9bn as interest payments on domestic loans which are mainly treasury bills.
Government is seeking to borrow GHS 94.4 billion via treasury bills in 2024 to finance its expenditure.
This amount includes a GHS 31.8 billion buffer for T-Bill auction shortfalls.
Analysts believe the government will continue the excess uptakes of T-Bills auction which began late last year and into this new year to build the target buffer.
