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Dubai / Reuters
Qatar’s central bank is offering 3 billion riyals ($824 million) of government bonds in its second domestic bond sale this year, according to a circular seen by Reuters.
The central bank only issued its first domestic bonds this year in August when it sold 4.6 billion riyals of conventional and Islamic government bonds.
Bids for the latest offer were due on Monday, with allocations to be made the following day, according to the offer document.
Nobody was available to comment from the central bank.
The offer is made up of 1.5 billion riyals of three-year bonds at a fixed rate of 2.25 percent, 1 billion riyals of five-year debt at 2.75 percent, 250 million riyals of seven-year debt at 3.25 percent and 250 million riyals of 10-year debt at 3.75 percent, according to the document.
Falling state revenues due to low oil and gas prices have slashed financial inflows into the banking system this year, raising money rates and causing the central bank to cancel several monthly sales of short-term bills.
Since June, however, money rates have come off their highs, with the three-month interbank offered rate quoted at 1.57 percent on Sunday, down from June’s multi-year peak of 1.77 percent though still up sharply from 1.17 percent 12 months ago