Mauritius rejects 91-day T-bills for seventh week

The Bank of Mauritius rejected for a seventh consecutive week all bids for its 91-day Treasury bills and for the first time, all bids for its 182-day Treasury bills, too.

The central bank, however, sold 270 million rupees ($9.47 million) of 364-day bills, at a bank rate of 3.92 percent.

Offers for the 91-day paper came to 145 million rupees and for the 182-day to 450 million rupees.

Bids ranged between 3.0 percent and 1.90 percent for the 91-day Treasury bills and between 2.60 percent and 2.10 percent for the 182-day Treasury bills.

Yields on the three-month paper sank to a record low of 1.73 at the Feb. 11 auction and none have been sold since.

The central bank said on Tuesday it would cap commercial banks' holdings of Treasury bills from April to spur private. 

Governor Rundheersing Bheenick said the Bank of Mauritius has been rejecting offers on 91-day Treasury bills at auction for the last six weeks to encourage banks to take some risk.

The central bank also raised banks' reserve requirements to 7 percent