MANILA – The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) on Monday made a full award of Treasury bills (T-bills) across-the-board and even upsized those for the 91- and 182-day paper due to strong demand.
The rate of the 91-day paper declined to 2.479 percent from 2.617 percent during the auction last April 27.
BTr awarded PHP7 billion for this tenor, up from the scheduled PHP5-billion offer, after tenders reached PHP24.748 billion.
The rate of the 182-day paper slipped to 2.625 percent from last week’s 2.831 percent.
The PHP7 billion worth of this tenor was awarded, higher than the PHP5-billion announced offering. Total tenders amounted to PHP33.410 billion.
The 364-day T-bill was fully awarded at PHP10 billion, while tenders totaled to PHP41.77 billion.
Its rate averaged at 2.945 percent, down from the 3.054 percent last week.
National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said the auction committee decided to open the tap facility to offer PHP10 billion worth of one-year paper.
She attributed their decision to upside the award for the three-month and six-month papers and the full award for the one-year T-bill to drop in average rates.
De Leon also traced the decline in the T-bills’ interest rates to lower inflation expectations with low oil prices.
“(The interest rates’ declines were also) influenced still by ample liquidity and cut in (the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’) policy rates,” she said, adding that government securities are the “only game in town.” (PNA)
