US sells 1-month bills at highest rate since 2008

NEW YORK: The US Treasury Department on Tuesday sold $45 billion of one-month bills at an interest rate of 0.480 percent, which was the highest for this debt maturity at an auction since October 2008, Treasury data showed.

This compared with an interest rate of 0.34 percent at the prior one-month bill sale last week.

The one-month T-bill sale came as the Federal Reserve was scheduled to meet on Tuesday and Wednesday where policy-makers have been widely expected to raise short-term interest rates by a quarter point to a target range of 0.50-0.75 percent.

The ratio of bids to the amount of one-month bills offered was 3.21, which the lowest since the one-month T-bill auction held in Aug. 23.