Reporting "Asre Bazar", authorities announced earlier this month that no further T-bills will be up for sale by yearend (March 20), a policy that critics say has come into contradiction with the administration’s initial financing plans.
The T-bills will be sold out of the capital market,” Securities and Exchange Organization Chairman Dr. Shapour Mohammadi said told SENA.
Earlier the Management and Planning Organization reported that the T-bills will soon be up for grabs as before. The MPO has not yet reacted to the SEO chief’s comments.
“Our priority is with the stock market and the private sector,” Dr. Mohammadi said, warning that the bond market must be controlled or equity traders may lose much more than in the recent past.
The bond market has been a favorite way for the Rouhani administration to raise funds in the past couple of years. The government sought to use the funds to repay its accumulated debt to banks and contractors, but capital market officials are complaining that the debt market has become so strong that the equity market is getting hurt.
“It is our duty to protect equity traders and to make a balance between the equity and bond markets,” Dr. Mohammadi said.
He added that his organization would stop excessive sale of bonds.
“The optimal sale of bonds must be observed in a way that the national economy would be developed,” he further said.
He concluded that the debt market is a “complementary” instrument that should not excessively be used.
Market officials had called on parliamentarians this month to help control the growing trend of the bond market.
Source: SENA