The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) has finally raised P20 billion on Monday’s auction, marking its first full award of bids for Treasury bills (T-bills) since the declaration of the Luzon-wide lockdown.
The BTr also snapped its 3- week rejection streak for bids on debt papers. Up to two auctions for government securities were held per week since Metro Manila was declared under community quarantine on March 15.
While the rates still trended higher compared to previous auctions, National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon said these are “within internal estimates and secondary levels.”
“[The] market continues to remain cautious as [the] duration of [the] lockdown is uncertain. But at the same time, [we] have to deploy liquidity from [the] RRR cut,” De Leon said referring to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ 200-basis point cut in the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) last March.
“Also there is a P16-billion redemption adding to liquidity that needs to be put to work,” she added.
The auction was also oversubscribed by more than 1.5-times as total tenders reached P37.675 billion compared to the P20 billion offering.
The 91-day T-bills fetched an average auction rate of 3.413 percent, higher by 38.9 basis points from the previous average auction rate of 3.024 percent. Total bids for the security reached P15.95 billion compared to P10 billion offering.
Meanwhile, the 182-day T- bills capped at an average rate of 3.553 percent, up by 15.5 basis points from the 3.398-percent average auction rate in the previous auction. Bids for the security amounted to P10.915 billion compared to the P5 billion on offer.
The 364-day T-bills were awarded at an average auction rate of 3.845 percent, posting an increase of 28.8 basis points from the previous average auction rate of 3.557 percent.
Tenders reached P10.810 billion out of the P5 billion offering.
For April alone, the BTr earlier programmed to borrow P190 billion from the domestic market amid the risk-off appetite stemming from investors’ lingering concerns on the pandemic.
As of end-February this year, national government’s total outstanding debt has reached P8.17 trillion, higher by 9.6 percent compared to P7.45 trillion on the same month in 2019. This is also up by 5.2 percent from P7.76 trillion as of end-January this year.