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DUBAI, March 1 (Reuters) - The Qatar central bank has cancelled its sale of Treasury bills on Tuesday, sources aware of the matter said.
The central bank had planned to sell three-, six- and nine-month T-bills totalling 2.5 billion riyals ($666.6 million), banking sources said on condition of anonymity as the information is not public.
"Fewer local banks participated in the T-bills because of tight liquidity and rising rates," one of the bankers said.
The central bank also cancelled its T-bill sales in January and February as it resisted upward pressure on market interest rates caused by low oil prices, which have reduced flows of new money into the banking system, and the U.S. Federal Reserve's rate hike in December.
"No T-bill issued today, [the central bank] is planning to issue one next month as per normal," said Adel Bakr, assistant director for public debt and banking affairs at the Qatar Central Bank.
($1 = 3.7502 riyals)
(Reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh and Archana Narayanan in Dubai and Tom Finn in Doha; Editing by David French) ((archana.narayanan@thomsonreuters.com; +971 445 36240; Reuters Messaging: archana.narayanan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
The central bank had planned to sell three-, six- and nine-month T-bills totalling 2.5 billion riyals ($666.6 million), banking sources said on condition of anonymity as the information is not public.
"Fewer local banks participated in the T-bills because of tight liquidity and rising rates," one of the bankers said.
The central bank also cancelled its T-bill sales in January and February as it resisted upward pressure on market interest rates caused by low oil prices, which have reduced flows of new money into the banking system, and the U.S. Federal Reserve's rate hike in December.
"No T-bill issued today, [the central bank] is planning to issue one next month as per normal," said Adel Bakr, assistant director for public debt and banking affairs at the Qatar Central Bank.
($1 = 3.7502 riyals)
(Reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh and Archana Narayanan in Dubai and Tom Finn in Doha; Editing by David French) ((archana.narayanan@thomsonreuters.com; +971 445 36240; Reuters Messaging: archana.narayanan.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
