National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon
MANILA – Bids for the 35-day Treasury bill, a tenor last issued nearly two decades ago, were fully rejected by the Bureau of the Treasury’s (BTr) auction committee on Tuesday due to the demand for high yield.
Had the auction committee issued the paper, its rate would have averaged at 3.390 percent, higher than the prevailing interest rate of government securities and the 3.01-percent rate in the secondary market on Tuesday.
The BTr offered debt security for PHP15 billion and tenders reached PHP29.6 billion.
The rejection was made after a similar decision was made for the regularly issued 91-, 182-, and 364-day T-bill on Monday.
National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said they rejected the tenders because the bureau has “plenty of ammunition.”
De Leon said government funds remain enough despite the huge requirements needed as soon as possible to address the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
“We have measures identified for this as outlined in (the) Bayanihan Act,” she added, referring to Republic Act (RA) 11469, which provided the President emergency powers to re-align some portion of this year’s national budget for Covid-19 measures.
Initially, the government announced the allocation of PHP27.1 billion for sectors affected by the pandemic.
Under the Bayanihan Act, some PHP200 billion will be distributed as cash and in-kind aid for poor households whose livelihood was affected by the enhanced community quarantine implemented in Luzon from March 17 to April 12.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has announced several policy measures to help address the economic impact of the global pandemic. These measures include the total of 75-basis-point reduction in the BSP’s key policy rates, 200-basis-point cut in universal and commercial banks’ reserve requirement ratio starting March 30, early remittance of PHP20-billion dividends for this year to the national government, and the acquisition of PHP300 billion worth of government securities that would be repurchased by the BTr at a maximum period of six months. (PNA)
