Government will seek to raise ¢1.85 billion to refinance the upcoming Treasury bill maturities of ¢1.619 billion.

Demand is expected to go up as government claims Treasury bills would not be affected by any debt restructuring exercise.

In the 2023 fiscal budget, the government reiterated its preference for concessional financing and proposed to impose a cap on non-concessional financing.

The government aims to place a moratorium on new financing in 2023, where non-concessional financing will only be considered for critical transformative projects. This will help slow down government borrowing.

In the just-ended treasury auction, the government accepted ¢2.39 billion out of total bids of ¢2.39 billion.

The sale exceeded the target for the second successive week.

The government accepted bids at weighted average yields of 35.54% for the 91-day bill, 36.38% for the 182- day bill and 35.90% for the 364-day bill.

Trading activity improve 48.98% on bond market

Trading activity improved 48.98% week-on-week with an aggregate market turnover of ¢4.76 billion.

The July 33, November 26 and March 25 papers were the most traded with volumes of ¢837.34 million, ¢783.49 million and ¢560.64 million, respectively, with bid yields above 40%.

The yield curve widened by an average of 1.5 percentage points as sell-side activity dominated trades.