Sri Lanka bill yields edge lower

June 10, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Treasury bills yields edged marginally lower as the government sold 4.
5 billion rupees of maturing bills to the market at Wednesday’s auction, the debt office said.

However selling down the T-bill stock to lock up foreign reserves also puts pressure on interest rates.
The 3-month yield fell to 03 basis points to 12.01 percent, the 6-month yield fell 08bp to 13.
05 percent and the 12-month yield fell 01bp to 13.
39 percent.

The debt office, which is a unit the central bank, sold 1.0 billion rupees of 3-month bills, 1.
5 billion rupees of 6-month bills and 2.
0 billion rupees of 12-month bills.

A month ago about half the Treasury bills in issue was in central bank as more than two hundred billion rupees were printed a in a sterilized intervention exercises which worsened a balance of payments crisis.

But following the float of the rupee, the central bank has been selling down its stock of bills and collecting rupees.

On Tuesday’s the central bank’s T-bill stock fell to below 200 billion rupees to 199 billion rupees.