National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon
MANILA – National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said on Monday risk-on sentiments among investors resulted in the decline in rates of Treasury bills (T-bills) despite the expected elevated inflation for April 2021.
The average rate of the 91-day T-bill slipped to 1.306 percent, the 182-day T-bill rate to 1.629 percent, and the 364-day paper to 1.863 percent.
These were at 1.369 percent, 1.714 percent, and 1.880 percent during the auction last April 26.
The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) offered the three-month paper for PHP5 billion, the six-month paper for PHP8 billion, and the one-year paper for PHP12 billion.
All tenors were oversubscribed and the BTr even offered the one-year T-bill over the tap facility window for PHP7 billion and doubled the accepted volume for non-competitive bids for the six-month paper resulting in total awards of PHP11.2 billion.
Tenders for the 91-day paper amounted to PHP18.1 billion while it is PHP38.075 billion for the 182-day paper and PHP37.865 billion for the one-year paper.
“(We) welcome (the) strong participation in today’s auction with rates declining across tenors in spite of projected elevated inflation last month,” de Leon said.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) forecasts the rate of price increases for April 2021 to range between 4.2 to 5 percent.
Inflation rate last March slipped to 4.5 percent from month-ago’s 4.7 percent, the highest since the 5.1 percent in December 2018. (PNA)
