NAIROBI, Dec. 30 (Xinhua) -- Uptake of Kenya's Treasury bills this week dropped considerably amid falling yields, pointing to the direction the debt market might take at the start of 2017.
The decline follows several weeks of intense buying of the papers occasioned by sustained borrowing by the government for budgetary support.
This week, as in the past, the government floated 91-day Treasury bills worth 39 U.S. million dollars.
"The total number of bids received amounted to 13 million dollars representing a subscription of 34 percent," auction statistics from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) showed Friday.
The apex bank accepted all the bids at 8.55-percent interest rate, down from 8.56 percent in the previous week.
Similarly, the bank floated 182-day and 364-day Treasury bills worth 118 million dollars, 59 million dollars for each.
The poor performance, blamed on Christmas holiday and falling yields, was a continuation from last week, where the 91-day paper attracted 37 million dollars out of the 39 million sought and the 364-day paper raised 20 million dollars from the 59 million floated.
During the auction, however, the 182-day paper attracted bids worth 158 million dollars, a subscription of 264 percent, with analysts noting investors were eyeing the security as it offered them the best returns on a risk-adjusted basis.
Due to intense borrowing, Kenya's domestic debt closes the year at a high of 19 billion dollars, according to the official data from the CBK.
