National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon
MANILA – National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said the increase in the rate of five-year Treasury bonds (T-bond) on Wednesday remains in line with the secondary market.
The average rate of the debt paper moved to 4.089 percent from 4.012 percent previously.
The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) offered the securities for PHP35 billion and the auction committee made a full award. Total bids reached PHP60.657 billion.
“Despite hawkish tone from Fed(ederal Reserve), rates remained within market levels with expectation of cooling inflation and continued supportive monetary stance,” she told journalists in a Viber message.
The BTr did not reoffer the same paper over the tap facility window during the day as members of the auction committee “do not think there will be availment,” she added.
Domestic inflation rate decelerated in the last four months of 2021, from 4.9 percent last August to 3.6 percent in December, which resulted in a full-year average of 4.5 percent.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) officials forecast inflation to stay within the government’s 2 to 4-percent target band for this and next year.
Philippine monetary officials have kept the central bank’s key policy rates steady, with the overnight reverse repurchase (RRP) rate at record-low of 2 percent, since last year to help buoy the domestic economy from the impact of the pandemic.
BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno vowed to maintain their accommodative policy stance as long as necessary to help in the economy’s full recovery. (PNA)
