T-bill rates fall across-the-board

MANILA, Philippines — Short-term securities during yesterday’s auction fetched lower rates across-the-board following newly appointed Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno’s statements on monetary policy.

This prompted the auction committee to fully award P20 billion worth of Treasury bills (T-bills) during yesterday’s auction – comprised of P6 billion worth of 90-day securities, P6 billion worth of 182-day debt papers, and P8 billion worth of 364-day bills.

Rates for the 90-day T-bills fetched an average rate of 5.716 percent, 1.7 basis points lower than the 5.733 percent recorded during the previous auction.

The offering was slightly oversubscribed, with tenders amounting to P6.745 billion.

Likewise, the average rate of 182-day debt notes declined by 3.9 basis points to 5.936 percent from 5.975 percent last week.

The auction was almost twice oversubscribed, with total bids reaching P11.945 billion.

Rates for the 364-day T-bills averaged 6.018 percent, down by 3.4 basis points compared to last week’s level of 6.052 percent.

Healthy demand met the auction as total tenders reached P13.081 billion.

In an interview after the auction, National Treasurer Rosalia De Leon said rates went down as the market took cues from the recent policy statements of Diokno. “Because of what they heard from the Governor, that there’s now room for monetary easing,” De Leon said.