Nairobi, March 18 -- The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has resisted pressure from investors to pay a rate of 17 percent on Treasury bills, helped by the reduced need for aggressive borrowing after the government raked in Sh275 billion from bond sales since February.

Investors have over the last two weekly auctions sought to be paid an average of 17.01 percent on the 364-day Treasury bill, but the CBK has kept the average rate of accepted bids at 16.98 percent.

The rate on the longest T-bill tenor has barely moved over the past month, having stood at 16.91 percent as at mid-February.

On the other tenors, the upward movement of rates has also slowed down over the past month, with the 182-day going up from 16.71 percent to 16.85 percent and...