Interest rates surge to 35% as government misses T-bills target marginally

Interest rates continued to surge on the money market, going beyond 35% to reflect the increased inflation rate of 40.4% in October 2022.

However, the government failed to meet the sale of the Treasury bills target marginally by 3.7%.

This is the 5^th week running that the government failed to achieve its target, but based on the numbers liquidity appears to be improving.

Again, the government was seeking to refinance the upcoming T-bill maturities of ¢1.711 billion, so getting ¢1.983 billion is a good sale.

According to the auction results, most of the investors bought the 91-day T-bills as the government mobilised ¢1.82 billion.

The yield on the 3 months bill however went for 34.3%.

For the 182-day Treasury bills, the bids tendered were ¢145.69 million but government accepted ¢142.03 million. The interest rate was 35.4%.

That of the 364-day went for 35.07%. Government however accepted ¢7.86 million of the ¢10.03 million bids tendered in.

Despite a surging interest rates, there is still a negative real return between interest rates and inflation.