MANILA, Philippines — Rates fetched by 91-day Treasury bills (T-bills) declined, while rates for the 181-day and 364-day securities rose moderately amid healthy demand from investors ahead of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ monetary policy meeting this week, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said yesterday.
This prompted the auction committee to fully award P15 billion worth of T-bills, with P4 billion maturing in 91 days, P5 billion in 181 days and P6 billion in 364 days.
The 91-day debt papers fetched an average rate of 5.35 percent, 4.4 basis points lower than the 5.394 percent recorded in the previous auction.
The auction was oversubscribed, with total tenders reaching P7.65 billion.
On the other hand, rates for the 181-day T-bills averaged 6.344 percent or 3.9 basis points higher than last week’s level of 6.305 percent.
Healthy demand met the P5 billion offering, with total bids amounting to P8.525 billion.
The average rate for the 364-day debt notes likewise rose by 7.8 basis points to 6.585 percent from 6.507 percent a week ago.
Total tenders amounted to P7.374 billion, higher than the P6 billion offer size.
“We see again at least very good results for our auction today,” National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said after the auction.
According to De Leon, the increase in rates seen during the auction “continued to narrow” given the expectations that the BSP’s Monetary Board might take a pause from its monetary policy tightening in its meeting this Thursday.
“And also from the Fed (US Federal Reserve), they are more dovish now and less hawkish given the results coming from the trade tensions and expectations that global growth would be slowing down,” she said.