To finance the national debt, the government issues a variety of debt securities. The most widely held liquid security is the Treasury bill, which is commonly issued by the ministry of finance. However, some Treasury bills, like the Treasury bill of the U. S. government, do not actually pay interest. Instead they are issued at a discount from par (their value at maturity). The investor's yield comes from the increase in the value of the security between the time it was pm, chased and the time it matures. Treasury bills are attractive to investors because they are backed by the government and therefore are virtually free of default risk. Because even if the government ran out of money, it could simply print more to pay them off when they mature. The risk of unexpected changes in inflation is also low because of the short term to maturity. The markets for Treasury bills in most developed countries are deep and liquid. A deep market is one with many different buyers and sellers. A liquid market is one in which securities can be bought and sold quickly and with low transaction costs. Investors in markets that are deep and liquid have little risk that they will not be able to sell their securities when they want to. reasury bills are short - term and virtually free of default risk.