MANILA – The rates of the Philippines treasury bills (T-bills) declined across the board Monday as demand for government securities remained strong.
The average rate of the 91-day paper slipped to 0.917 percent, the 182-day to 1.210 percent, and the 364-day to 1.492 percent.
These were at 0.969 percent, 1.323 percent, and 1.542 percent during the auction last Jan. 25.
National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon attributed the drop of T-bills’ interest rates to strong demand because of the high liquidity situation in the domestic economy.
“Rates fell in spite of higher inflation for January as (the) market flushed with funds,” she told journalists in a Viber message.
The government is scheduled to release the January 2021 inflation rate late this week.
Authorities expect another uptick in the inflation rate for the first month this year because of the rise in the prices of meat and oil products.
Inflation accelerated in the last quarter of 2020, which they attributed to the weather-related effect on agricultural products.
Because of the strong demand for the T-bills, the Bureau of the Treasury’s (BTr) auction committee doubled the accepted amount for the non-competitive bids for both the three- and six-month paper to PHP4,000, which resulted in the total of PHP7-billion award for each tenor.
It originally offered these tenors for PHP5 billion.
Bids for the three-month paper reached PHP19.56 million while it amounted to PHP33.456 billion for the 6-month paper.
Total tenders for the 1-year paper amounted to PHP50.63 billion, higher than the PHP10-billion offer, which was fully awarded. (PNA)
