THE Bureau of the Treasury awarded P22 billion in its latest auction of Treasury Bills (T-bills) on Monday as rates remain low on the back of strong liquidity.
National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon told reporters that liquidity remains to be strong, pointing to local and international monetary authorities signaling to maintain an accommodative policy stance.
“Liquidity remains strong particularly on the front-end with assuring statements from [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas] Governor [Benjamin E.] Diokno to continue supportive policies for economic rebound as well as [Federal Reserve Chair Jerome] Powell message to keep rates low,” De Leon told reporters.
Rates across all tenors were all lower than those in the secondary market. The auction was oversubscribed by more than four times the initial P20-billion offer as total bids amounted to P87.1 billion.
The P5 billion 91-day T-bills on offer was fully awarded, with total bids reaching P17.76 billion.
The average rate for the 91-day security climbed to 0.984 percent or 0.7 basis point up from 0.977 percent in the previous auction.
On the other hand, the auction committee awarded P7 billion in 182-day T-bills, which was higher than the initial P5-billion offer after the auction committee decided to double the accepted non-competitive bids for the security.
The average rate for the 182-day security slid by 1.2 basis points to 1.348 percent from 1.36 percent previously. Tenders for the tenor amounted to P24.296 billion, nearly five times the initial offer.
The Treasury also fully awarded P10 billion in 364-day T-bills, with tenders reaching P45.055 billion.
The average rate for the tenor was also capped at 1.582 percent, dropping by 2.3 basis points from 1.605 percent.
For this tenor, the Treasury also opened an additional P10 billion offering through a tap facility auction also on Monday.
For this month, the Treasury has programmed to borrow P140 billion.
Finance officials said they expect national government debt this year to settle at 57 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) as the country aims to borrow a total of P3.03 trillion, roughly the same amount it borrowed in 2020.
Government projects the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio to reach 53.5 percent.
This is significantly higher than the state’s pre-pandemic target of 40.2 percent and the country’s actual debt-to-GDP ratio in 2019, which fell at a historic low at 39.6 percent.
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez said the projected debt-to-GDP ratio of the country for last year “kept us well within the prescribed bounds of fiscal viability.”
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