KARACHI, Nov 14: The State Bank on Wednesday slashed the cut-off yield on treasury bills by 11-23 basis points and sucked in Rs7.5 billion from the inter-bank market. Earlier on October 31 the SBP had cut the yield on T-bills by 1.64-1.81 per cent in a follow up of a two per cent cut in its discount rate announced on October 20.

The SBP slashed the cut-off yield on six-month T-bills by 11 basis points to 8.39 per cent. The central bank also lowered the yield on three-month and one-year T-bills by 21 and 11 basis points respectively.

The auction of the bills on reduced rates generated Rs7.5 billion. The auction had attracted total bids worth Rs13.25 billion of which the SBP accepted bids worth Rs8 billion. The acceptance of Rs8 billion worth of bids at discounted value raised Rs7.5 billion — Rs2.35 billion through six-month T-bills; Rs4.96 billion through one-year T-bills and Rs196 million through three-month T-bills. The amount thus raised from the banking system would form part of the government borrowing.