Saudi Arabian authorities have reportedly suspended the government's monthly issue of local currency bond in October, with sources saying that SAMA has not notified banks of a bond offer. The Central Bank (SAMA) said on Thursday it was introducing a new money market instrument, a 90-day repurchase agreement, that it could use to lend money to banks when needed, to complement seven- and 28-day repo agreements that were introduced last month. Previously, it had typically only used repo agreements with one-day maturities. SAMA also said it was halving the maximum volume for its T-bill issues to SAR3bn per week from SAR9bn riyals. Meanwhile, the three-month interbank offered rate shot up to 2.4% last week - a record high since January 2009, from below 1.0% a year ago - and has stopped climbing this week on beliefs that the government is likely to deposit part of the USD17.5bn bond proceeds in local banks. The government had made a special deposit of cSAR20bn to ease liquidity last month. (Reuters)