T-bills auction: Government borrowed GH¢23.6bn in September 2024

The government borrowed GH¢23.6 billion across the 91-day to 364-day treasury bills in September 2024.

This represented a 24.7% increase over that of August 2024.

Although the Treasury accepted all bids tendered, the total uptake fell short of the target by 19.6% (or GH¢5.8 billion).

This was due to the rise in treasury offers by  GH¢8.2 billion (+38.7% month-on-month) which outpaced the  GH¢4.7 billion increase in total bids.

Meanwhile, yields increased as the market priced in mounting refinancing risk while the Treasury seemingly suspended its early-year yield compression strategy.

The 91-day yield surged by 85 basis points (bps) month-on-month to 25.64%. The 182-day yield also went up by 24bps to 26.92% while the 364-day yield climbed 86bps to 28.68%.

Analysts alluded that the 200bps cut in the policy rate to 27.0% has boosted the pricing appeal of T-bills relative to Bank of Ghana bills and could potentially improve demand for the former.

However, they are less optimistic about an immediate decline in yield for T-bills as the upside risk from Treasury’s borrowing pressure remains high.