WASHINGTON - Interest rates on six-month Treasury bills fell yesterday to the lowest point on records that go back more than 50 years.
The Treasury Department auctioned $29 billion in six-month bills at a discount rate of 0.240 percent. That’s down from 0.255 percent last week, and a record low since the government started issuing the bills weekly in December 1958.
Another $30 billion in three-month bills were auctioned at a discount rate of 0.150 percent, down from 0.165 percent last week. That rate was the lowest since 0.135 percent on April 30.
Rates on three- and six-month bills have been moving in a narrow band below 1 percent for months, reflecting a drive by the Federal Reserve to push short-term borrowing costs down in an effort to jump-start economic activity.
The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value.
For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,996.21, while a six-month bill sold for $9,987.87. That would equal an annualized rate of 0.152 percent for the three-month bills, and 0.244 percent for the six-month bills.
Separately, the Federal Reserve said the average yield for one-year Treasury bills edged up to 0.45 percent last week, from 0.44 percent.
