THE Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) is eyeing to offer Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs); the second time this year.
National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon said on Monday that they are planning once again to offer RTBs.
“Planning for RTB sale as market still looking for outlets to deploy liquidity,” De Leon told reporters in a message.
The National Treasurer said, however, the volume that the Treasury eyes to offer is “not jumbo RTB in most recent issues.”
In March this year, the government raised P463.3 billion from the issuance of 3-year RTBs.
Generally considered low-risk investment instruments, RTBs allow investors to earn a fixed interest based on prevailing market rates that are paid quarterly during the term of the bond.
Meanwhile, the Treasury also fully awarded P15-billion in Treasury Bills (T-bills) on Monday despite rates slightly inching up across the board.
The auction was more than twice oversubscribed as total submitted bids reached P42.5 billion.
Following the auction, De Leon said they do not see a significant rise in rates “following a deceleration in inflation and no market tantrum to Fed [US Federal Reserve’s] announcement of taper.”
Last Friday, the Philippine Statistics Authority announced that inflation slowed to 4.6 percent in October from the 4.8 percent posted in September. Inflation average 4.5 percent in the January-to-October period.
The 91-day T-bills fetched an average rate of 1.143 percent, up by 1.3 basis points from 1.13 percent in the previous auction.
Total bids submitted for the tenor reached P14.53 billion, nearly thrice the P5-billion offering.
Meanwhile, the 182-day T-bills inched up to 1.401 percent from the previous auction’s 1.395 percent. The security attracted total bids of P15.26 billion, thrice the P5-billion offering.
Lastly, the 364-day T-bills capped an average rate of 1.616 percent, up by 0.3 basis points from 1.613 percent. Tenders for the security amounted to P12.725 billion, more than twice the offer.
The Treasury is set to borrow this month some P200 billion from the local debt market in November, the same amount it programmed to borrow for October.
The Treasury aims to raise P140 billion through auctioning off T-bonds while another P60 billion is programmed to be borrowed through T-bills.
The national government’s outstanding debt as of end-September this year ballooned to another record high of P11.92 trillion, already breaching government’s expected level of debt stock of P11.73 trillion by the end of this year.
This was also higher by 27.2 percent or P2.55 trillion than P9.37 trillion in the same period in 2020.
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