MUMBAI (Reuters) – India on Friday raised the amount it plans to borrow through short-term treasury bills next month, even as the government cut back on other bond sales amid rising global yields.
The government will now issue short-term treasury bills worth 1.86 trillion rupees ($24.75 billion) between March 2 and March 31, it said in a press release late on Friday, compared with the 1.26 trillion rupees it had announced as part of the borrowing calendar in December.
India lowered its annual borrowing for the current year to 10.46 trillion rupees from 12.05 trillion rupees on Feb 1.
Since then, it has cancelled two scheduled bond auctions, each worth 240 billion rupees ($3.2 billion), citing a comfortable cash position but, in a surprise move, borrowed 230 billion rupees on Friday.
Sources told Reuters this week the government would watch bond yeilds and decide to conduct the cancelled auctions going ahead to take advantage of the relatively low cost of borrowing.
A finance ministry official told reporters on Wednesday there will be no surprises on government borrowing and market participants would be informed in advance.
($1 = 75.1370 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Abhirup Roy and Swati Bhat; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
