Benchmark T-bill rate drops to 2.501%

MANILA, Philippines – The yield for the bellwether 91-day Treasury bills (T-bills) declined 37.9 basis points to 2.501 percent from the previous rate of 2.880 percent, the Bureau of the Treasury reported yesterday.

The government sold P9 billion worth of T-bills on the back of strong demand for the debt papers.

Total tenders for the 91-day T-bills reached P8.560 billion, allowing the government to sell the programmed debt sale of P2 billion.

On other hand, the 182-day T-bill fetched an average rate of 2.759 percent, higher by 31.5 basis points from the previous rate of 2.444 percent. Investors tendered a total of P7.5 billion as the government awarded P3 billion worth of bids.

Similarly, for the 364-day T-bill, the average rate went up by 1.7 basis points to 3.236 percent from the previous rate of 3.219 percent. For this paper, the government made a full award of P4 billion out of total tenders of P7.210 billion.

National Treasurer Roberto Tan said the uptick in the rates of the six-month and one-year T-bills were within secondary market levels. Officials said the increase in rates was within expectations.

“It was a good auction. The volume of bids was meaningful,” Tan told reporters after the auction.

He said that there’s more demand for the 91-day paper because some investors wanted to park their funds for a shorter period of time.

“Some people want to park it shorter because there are still a lot of uncertainties,” Tan said, noting the inflation could be among the factors affecting decisions.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said inflation this year could breach the higher end of the BSP’s three to five percent target due to continued build up of inflationary pressures.

Pressures are coming from oil prices as well as electric and transport costs. –Iris C. Gonzales (The Philippine Star)