The latest treasury bill auction came off on April 17, a day before the commencement of the Easter Holidays. The government had sought to raise GH¢6.6 billion but ended up accepting only GH¢4.6 billion out of total bids of GH6.4 billion.

Interest rates nterest rates recorded for the week were 15.45%, 16.18% and 18.62% for the 91-day, 182-day, and 364-day securities respectively. A slight drop from the 15.45%, 16.22%, and 18.65% recorded in the previous auction. The preference of the government is for interest rates on treasury bills to remain low and thus bidders looking for higher interest rates are turned away.

Keeping interest rates low has so far not had a significant effect on demand for treasury bills however, it remains to be seen how long government can keep turning away bids. The recent auction saw the government fall short of the GH¢6.36 billion required to pay off maturing treasury bills, indicating the possibility of government raising rates in the future to attract more bids.

The next auction comes off on Friday, April 25 in where the government hopes to raise GH¢6.14 billion.