THE Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) awarded only P12 billion of its P20-billion offer in its latest auction for Treasury bills (T-bills).
The BTr said, however, that the auction was oversubscribed with total bids reaching P59.8 billion, more than three times the offering.
The government rejected all the bids for the 91-day T-bills worth P21.65 billion and fully awarded the 182- and 364-day debt papers.
“The 182- and 364-day T-bills fetched averages of 3.174 percent and 3.576 percent, respectively —lower than secondary market rates,” BTr said in a statement.
For the 182-day T-bills, the BTr received a total of P16.41 billion bids. The auction committee accepted P6 billion worth of bids and rejected P10.41 billion bids.
The lowest interest rate for the 182-day T-bill was at 3.13 percent, while the highest was at 3.25 percent.
In terms of the 364-day T-bills, the BTr received a total of P21.721 billion in bids. However, it only accepted P6 billion and rejected P15.721 billion.
The lowest interest rate of the 364-day T-bills reached 3.55 percent while the highest was recoded at 3.58 percent.
Earlier, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno said he is open to cutting banks’ reserve requirement ratio (RRR).
Diokno told reporters on the sidelines of The Asset Forum in Bonifacio Global City that the BSP is still monitoring the data.
However, further RRR cuts augur well for the BSP’s plan of bringing down the RRR to single digit before he steps down from office.
Diokno said the BSP is still in the process of examining the data and still observing the overall inflation environment.
He added that the BSP is also monitoring international reports, such as the World Economic Outlook released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) before deciding.
The BSP has already cut the RRR by 200 bps this year. With another 100 bps by November, the Central Bank would bring down the RRR by 300 bps this year.
This brought the RRR of universal and commercial banks (U/KBs) to 15 percent, thrift banks (TBs) to 5 percent and rural banks (RBs) to 3 percent.
The latest cut is on top of the 200 basis points slash in U/KBs’ RRR, implemented in May (100 basis points), June (50 basis points) and July (50 basis points).
However, with regard to interest rates, Diokno said the Monetary Board may already be through adjusting the rates for the year.