RATE UPTICKS. The Bureau of the Treasury’s (BTr) auction committee awards in full the 91-day Treasury bill (T-bills) on Tuesday (May 10, 2022) but rejects bids for the 182-day and 364-day T-bills due to rate upticks. National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said the surge in April inflation continues to dampen market sentiment. (File photo)
MANILA – The Bureau of the Treasury’s (BTr) auction committee awarded in full the 91-day Treasury bill (T-bills) on Tuesday but rejected bids for the 182-day and 364-day T-bills due to rate upticks.
The rate of three-month paper rose to 1.531 percent. Had the auction committee awarded the six-month paper, its interest rate would have risen to 2.165 percent and the one-year paper to 2.329 percent.
These were at 1.272 percent, 1.635 percent, and 1.933 percent for the three-month, six-month, and one-year T-bills during the auction last May 2.
The BTr offered all tenors for PHP5 billion each and only the one-year paper was undersubscribed.
Total bids for the three-month T-bills amounted to PHP9.009 billion, while it reached PHP6.4 billion for the 182-day and PHP4.575 billion for the 364-day T-bills.
“Surge in April inflation continues to dampen market sentiment as analysts see inflation as (a) big headache for (the) next administration quoting Business World headline,” National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon told journalists in a Viber message, referring to a report from a major daily.
Domestic rate of price increases accelerated to 4.9 percent last April from the previous month’s 4 percent, resulting in a 3.7 percent average in the first four months this year, which is above the government’s 2-4 percent target band.
Asked about her assessment on investors’ outlook for the incoming administration, which will be announced in the coming days following the May 9 polls, De Leon said she is “not seeing significant movements in secondaries both ROPs (Republic of the Philippines) and local GS (government securities).”
ROPs are medium to long-term foreign currency-denominated bonds issued by the Philippine government. (PNA)
