THE government raised Rs229.571bn from an auction of Treasury bills of various tenors last Thursday, despite receiving bids in excess of Rs461bn.

Of the total, six-month T-bills fetched Rs116.676bn at a cut-off yield of 7.9869pc, followed by 12-month T-bills with Rs90.486bn at 7.8382pc and three-month T-bills with Rs22.41bn at 8.1902pc.

Of the bids received, 12-month T-bills had attracted the highest amount of Rs217.379bn, followed by six-month T-bills with Rs214.453bn and three-month T-bills with Rs29.255bn.

The central bank injected a big Rs842.5bn into the banking system through an open market operation on Friday

On the other hand, after sucking up liquidity through the T-bill auction, the central bank was forced to inject a big Rs842.5bn into the banking system through an open market operation in the seven-day contract on Friday. This followed a relatively smaller injection of Rs21bn earlier in the week.

According to the weekly statement of position of all scheduled banks for the week ending March 6, deposits and other accounts of all scheduled banks declined 0.31pc to Rs8,463.84bn, against the preceding week’s level of Rs8,490.383bn.

Deposits and other accounts of all commercial banks also fell 0.31pc to Rs8,442.67bn, against the earlier week’s figure of Rs8,469.248bn. Deposits and other accounts of all specialised banks stood at Rs21.17bn in the week, against the previous week’s figure of Rs21.135bn.

Cash and balances with treasury banks of all scheduled banks decreased 0.63pc to Rs675.252bn in the week under review, against the earlier week’s figure of Rs679.532bn.

Cash and balances with treasury banks of all commercial banks stood at Rs671.927bn in the week, against the preceding week’s figure of Rs676.005bn, down 0.6pc. Cash and balances with treasury banks of all specialised banks stood at Rs3.326bn in the week, against the preceding week’s figure of Rs3.527bn.

Investments of all scheduled banks stood at Rs5,627.514bn in the week ending March 6, against the previous week’s level of Rs5,585.830bn, showing a rise of 0.75pc.

Chart by Rehan Ahmed

Investments of all commercial banks stood at Rs5,600.942bn in the week, against the preceding week’s figure of Rs5,559.574bn, up 0.74pc. Investments of all specialised banks stood at Rs26.572bn in the week.

Gross advances by scheduled banks stood at Rs4,431.565bn in the week under review.

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, March 23rd, 2015

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