THE Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) raised P13.442 billion from the partial award of all the T-bills it auctioned on Monday, with the government tempering rates for the security due to lower inflation.
“First of all, we see that there’s oversubscription in the auction, so we awarded partially only given that we don’t see the need for any significant increase in the rates…with decelerating inflation,” National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon said.
The BTR awarded P3.386 billion of the P6 billion on offer for the 91-day tenor, with tenders for the security reaching P6.686 billion.
The average annual rate for the security was capped at 5.786 percent, lower by 7 basis points from the 5.716-percent rate last auction. If the auction committee awarded the full offering, rates would have increased by 14.70 basis points.
Tenders for the 182-day T-bill amounted to P9.480 billion with the auction committee partially awarding P4.960 billion, from the P6 billion on offer.
The average annual rate was capped at 5.987 percent, posting a 5.1-basis-point increase from the previous rate of 5.936 percent. If the BTr awarded the full offering, the rate would have increased by 6.80 basis points.
The 364-day tenor was partially awarded P5.096 billion from the offering of P8 billion, with tenders reaching P8.766 billion.
The rate for the security was capped at 6.051 percent, increasing by 3.30 basis points from the previous auction rate of 6.018 percent. The rate would have gone up by 10.60 basis points if the BTr fully awarded the T-bill.
“At the same time, we all know given also the projections that the BSP [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas] when they hold their policy meeting on Thursday, most likely they would hold rates steady, it will be a pause,” de Leon said.
“Similarly also for the Fed [Federal Reserve System], they are going to have their own policy meeting coming Wednesday, so with the soft week of US [United States] economic data we see also see that the Fed will also would be holding rates steady as well,” she added.
The BSP’s Monetary Board is set to hold its second policy meeting for 2019 on Thursday, March 21.