T-Bills: Treasury eyes GHS 12.7bn in domestic debt for January 2024

The Treasury is seeking to borrow some GHS 12.7 billion in treasury bills for January 2024 to finance maturing bills.

The expected GHS 12.7bn to be borrowed for this month is 1.2% lower than the GHS 12.8bn borrowed in December 2023.

Demand for treasury bills remained generally strong in December 2023.

Investors submitted total bids of GHS16.3 billion across the T-bills, representing an average weekly bid size of GHS 4 billion and exceeding the total maturities of GHs 12.8 billion.

Already, the government has raised GHS 3.2 billion in the first auction of 2024 which is 15.24% more than the targeted amount of GHS 2.7bn.

Based on the prevailing strong demand at an average of GHS 4 billion per week, analysts expect the authorities to comfortably refinance the upcoming maturities.

However, there are likely to be higher targets to finance the 2024 budget deficit and buffer for February 2024 coupon payments on the restructured bonds.

Meanwhile, the yield outturn was mixed in December 2023 as downward pressure from the sharp disinflation offset the upward pressure from the increase in the new Cash Reserve Ratio set by the BoG.

The 91-day and the 364-day yields respectively trimmed 14 basis points and 74 basis points month-on-month to 29.4% and 32.5% while the 182-day yield gained 19 basis points to 31.9%.