Uganda, April 11 -- Imagine you are selling your car. You put it up for auction, buyers show up with offers, and you take the highest bid.

That is how most auctions work. Now imagine you look at the offers, decide they are all too low, hand back the money, and go home, still holding the car. You have technically held an auction. You have not sold anything.

That is roughly what the Bank of Uganda did in March. It put a government bond (15-year) up for sale, received Shs598 billion worth of bids from investors, and accepted just Shs20 billion of it, about 3 cents on every shilling offered.

The rest was rejected, not because the demand was weak, but because investors were asking for an interest rate more than the government had decided. ...