RATES for Treasury Bills (T-bills) slightly declined across the board as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is expected to keep policy rates unchanged.
The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) easily raised P15-billion in T-bills during Monday’s auction, which was met with robust investor demand.
Total submitted bids for the tenors reached P72.5 billion, making the auction almost five-times oversubscribed.
National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon told reporters the slight dip in the rates was due to the expectations that BSP will keep the current policy rate. De Leon added the redemption of P20-billion worth of government securities also had an impact on the how the rates turned out.
The tenors fetched average rates that are all lower than the previous auction results.
The 91-day T-bills’ average rate slid to 1.07 percent, a 0.9 basis point difference from 1.079 percent previously. Tenders for the security amounted to P21.62 billion, more than quadruple the P5-billion offer.
Meanwhile, the 182-day T-bills recorded an average rate of 1.389 percent, down by 1.3 basis points from 1.402 percent. Bids for the tenor reached P26.47 billion, five times the P5-billion program.
For the 364-day T-bills, the average rate settled at P1.597 percent, lower by 0.7 basis points from 1.604 percent. Tenders for the debt paper hit P24.4 billion, almost five times the P5-billion offer.
For this month, the Treasury is set to borrow a total of P250 billion from the local debt market, higher than the P200 billion program in August.
Broken down, P175 billion will be raised through auctioning off Treasury Bonds while the remaining P75 billion will be generated via the sale of T-bills.
This year, the national government programmed to borrow a total of P3.1-trillion, most of which is expected to be raised through domestic sources.
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