T-bill Market Sees Dramatic Turnaround

Oct 16 , 2021


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The latest round of treasury bill auctions saw an oversubscription by over three billion Birr. Bidders offered 37.5 billion Br, although the central bank brought a total of 34 billion Br worth of bills to the table. The past three auctions attracted considerably lower offers as a result of regulatory changes that affected the liquidity position of commercial banks. Of the 60 billion Br in treasury bills availed in the last two auctions, financial institutions and other participants only offered to buy 11.7 billion Br worth. T-bills with 365-day maturity periods garnered the most offers in the latest auction on October 6, 2021. The cutoff yield for the bills stood at eight percent, one percentage point higher than the minimum interest rate offered on savings. T-bills with maturity periods of 28 and 180 days received the lowest offers, while there were no offers for T-bills with a maturity period of 90 days.


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