DOHA/DUBAI: Qatar's central bank appears to have cancelled a monthly auction of Treasury bills as it resists upward pressure on market interest rates, commercial bankers said on Tuesday.
Last week, the central bank announced on its website that it would sell three-, six- and nine-month T-bills on Tuesday.
But that announcement was removed from the website on Tuesday afternoon without explanation, and the central bank did not post results of an auction.
The central bank did not respond to telephone calls seeking comment, but bankers at two major Qatari commercial banks said their bids had not been accepted at the auction so they believed the sale had been cancelled.
"I've spoken to other bankers and they said the same. Their accounts have not been debited.
The results should have been posted on the central bank website but I haven't seen them," said one banker, declining to be named because of commercial sensitivities. He said he expected the central bank to release a statement clarifying the situation later in the day.
In the past three months, the central bank sold fewer T-bills than planned at its monthly sales and yields at the sales rose sharply.
Bankers in the Gulf said a reduction in fresh oil and gas revenues flowing into bank deposits, because of low global energy prices, was pushing up money rates in the region.
In October, Qatar central bank chief Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud al-Thani sought to dampen expectations for higher rates by saying he saw no reason for Qatar to imitate any US rate hike.
However, after the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates in December four other Gulf central banks quickly followed suit.
The Qatari central bank may have rejected all bids and cancelled Tuesday's bill auction because it felt the bids were too high, bankers said.
Comments
Comments are closed.