Last Treasury bill auction. An early warning of debt market manipulation?
Article's purpose This short article is to alert a possibility of Treasury bill market irregularities that can cost to the government and its debt sustainability. This is revealed from the unusual pattern of acceptance of bids at the last Treasury bill auction held on 26 March and recent auction trends. Auction results Yields rates were kept unchanged at the previous week's levels by accepting significantly below the funding requirement, especially for 91D bills. Selected early warnings and concerns over the auction results Acceptance of a negligible amount of 91D bills (Rs. 4,809 mn) way blow the announced amount (Rs. 20,000 mn) and bids (Rs. 21,383 mn) which is a deviation to the recent trend. The trend of lower acceptance of 91D bills was observed from several auctions prior to this although the normal tendency has been to accept bids of 91D much more than the amount announced for the auction. Acceptance of sizable amounts from other two longer maturities while this ten...