WASHINGTON (AP) - Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills rose in Monday's auction, their climb keeping them at their highest levels in more than a decade.
The Treasury Department auctioned $51 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 2.010 percent, up from 2.000 percent last week. Another $45 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 2.180 percent, up from 2.160 percent last week.
The three-month rate was the highest since those bills averaged 2.050 percent on June 16, 2008, before the financial crisis that struck in the fall of that year. The six-month rate was the highest since those bills averaged 2.255 percent on June 23, 2008.
The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,950.20 while a six-month bill sold for $9,900.88. That would equal an annualized rate of 2.048 percent for the three-month bills and 2.235 percent for the six-month bills.
Separately, the Federal Reserve said Monday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable-rate mortgages, stood at 2.43 percent last Friday, unchanged from the beginning of last week on July 30.
Published: Wed, Aug 08, 2018
