MANILA – Expectations for within-target inflation rate in July resulted in the sideways movement of Treasury bills (T-bills) on Monday.
The average rate of the 91-day securities moved to 1.053 percent, the 182-day to 1.401 percent, and the 364-day to 1.632 percent.
These were at 1.050 percent, 1.407 percent, and 1.638 percent for the three-month, six-month, and one-year paper during the auction last July 26.
The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) offered all tenors for PHP5 billion, and the auction committee made full awards across-the-board.
All tenors were oversubscribed by more than three times, with total bids for the three-month paper at PHP16.252 billion while it reached PHP19.48 billion for the six-month paper and PHP15.032 billion for the one-year paper.
“Rates moved sideways with inflation expected to stay within the BSP band at 4 percent for July,” National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon told journalists in a Viber message.
The Philippine Statistics Authority is scheduled to report the July 2021 inflation rate on Thursday.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas forecasts inflation to stay between 3.9 percent to 4.7 percent.
Inflation in the first half of the year averaged at 4.4 percent, higher than the government’s 2 percent to 4-percent target band.
Inflation was on the rise since the last quarter of 2020 and peaked last February at 4.7 percent. It decelerated to 4.1 percent last June.
Monetary authorities expect the elevated inflation rate to remain until the third quarter of the year and they forecast the full-year average to be at 4 percent. (PNA)
