China’s Finance Ministry failed to sell all of the debt offered at an auction for the first time in 23 months owing to a cash squeeze, according to two traders at finance companies that participate in the sales.

The ministry sold 9.53 billion yuan ($1.55 billion) of 273- day bills, less than the 15 billion yuan target, they said. The seven-day repurchase rate, which measures interbank funding availability, has more than doubled in the past month to 6.81 percent, as banks hoard cash to meet quarter-end capital requirements.

The average yield at the sale was 3.76 percent, said the traders, who asked not to be identified. That compares with Thursday’s 3.14 percent rate for similar-maturity existing securities, according to data compiled by Chinabond, the nation’s biggest debt-clearing house. The ministry’s last failed auction was a sale of 182-day bills in July 2011.

The finance ministry in January 2012 published a list of 59 underwriters required to bid at its debt sales, including Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, China Citic Bank, Postal Savings Bank of China, Industrial Bank, Guotai Junan Securities and BOC International (China).