Treasury bills oversubscribed by GH¢116 million despite negative returns

The government's treasury bills saw an oversubscription in its latest auction on April 6, 2023.

The short-term bills saw an oversubscription of GH¢116.02 million away from the set target of GH¢1.76 billion.

Even though interest rates remain low, the patronage of Treasury bills has seen oversubscriptions in recent times.

The reduction in interest rates has lowered the government's cost of paying maturities but returns for investors still remain negative as inflation rates are still very high - over 50%.

This week, all the instruments, i.e 91,182, and 364-day bills were purchased.

However, the 91-day bill saw the highest subscriptions with GH¢1.29 billion.

All bids (GH¢422 million) for the 182-day bills were also accepted whiles GH¢140 million bids were accepted for the 364-day bills.

Interest rates have been quite stable at an average of between 19% to 26%.

Last week, the sale of treasury bills saw an oversubscription of about GH¢300 million.

The government secured GH¢1.59 billion from the auction after setting a target of GH¢1.34 billion.

SSD/OGB