Govt raises GH¢4.5bn in lowest rate since June

The government has raised more than GH¢4.5 billion from the sale of short-dated securities at the lowest rate since June 2022.

It resold the 91-, 182- and 354-day bills on Tuesday at a benchmark rate of 24.16 per cent, significantly lower than the earlier offer rate of 35 per cent that was rejected last Friday.

The Ministry of Finance had earlier declined offers from dealers at 35 per cent, insisting that the market was ripe for lower rates after the successful conclusion of the domestic debt exchange programme (DDEP).

The low rates during Tuesday’s re-auction motivated the government to accept bids in excess of its targeted amount of GH¢2.77 billion.

The results of the auction published Wednesday showed that bids totaled GH¢6.151 billion but the government accepted GH¢4.5 billion.

While the 91-day bills were sold at 24.1610 per cent, the 182-day and the 254-day instruments were sold at 26.5564 per cent and 27.544 per cent respectively.

All rates are now the lowest since June when rates climbed up to 25 per cent and continued the upward surge to a peak of 36 per cent last month.

Graphic Online understands that the Ministry of Finance is working at resetting the rates to align with lower rates achieved in the long-dated horizon as a result of the DDEP.

The programme saw the swapping of about GH¢87 billion of high cost, shorter-dated bonds for low cost, longer-dated ones.