National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon
MANILA – The rates of Treasury bills (T-bills) rose across-the-board on Monday, which resulted in the partial award for the 91-day and 364-day tenors.
The average rate of 91-day T-bill inched up to 1.536 percent, the 182-day to 1.607 percent, and the 364-day to 1.792 percent.
These were at 1.305 percent, 1.458 percent, and 1.734 percent for the three-month, six-month, and one-year debt papers during the auction last March 14.
The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) offered all tenors for PHP5 billion each, and only the six-month paper was fully awarded.
The award for the 91-day T-bill amounted to PHP4.866 billion while it reached PHP4.030 billion for the one-year paper.
“We saw that increases demanded (were) tempered by expectations that BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) will keep rates steady,” National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon told journalists in a Viber message.
BSP’s policy-making Monetary Board (MB) will have its rate-setting meeting on Thursday, and it is widely expected to maintain the central bank’s key policy rates.
To date, the BSP’s overnight reverse repurchase (RRP) rate is at record low 2 percent.
The MB slashed the central bank’s key rates by a total of 200 basis points in 2020 in a bid to encourage lending and help lessen the impact of the pandemic on the domestic economy.
The Federal Reserve last week hiked its key rates by 25 basis points to between 0.25 to 0.50 percent, the first since December 2018.
However, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno earlier said they do not have to follow the Fed’s decision since they consider more domestic factors, adding the MB’s decision will be data-driven. (PNA)
