10,000 dongs worth of T-bills expired yesterday, replaced with just 850

The State Bank of Vietnam issued a tranche of T-bills yesterday valued at 850 billion dong or US$34 million, according to the SBV’s website. At the same time, 28-day T-bills to the tune of VND 10 trillion or US$409 million matured–a replacement rate of less than 10 percent. It’s not clear why the size of the SBV’s bond issues have so drastically reduced, more specifically, it’s not been made clear whether this is a demand or supply issue. That said, past bond issuances have done little to reduce pressure on the local currency, and bond issues of this size will do even less. In this context, buyers may be waiting to see what the SBV’s next move is *cough* interest rate rise *cough* before making any big investment decisions.