Gov’t raises P25B as T-bill rates ease further
The national government raised P25 billion from short-dated securities, which was greater than the planned P22 billion, as yield dipped across the board.
This happened as Fitch Ratings said external headwinds were weakening fiscal consolidation in the Asia-Pacific region.
The Bureau of the Treasury said on Monday, results were lower than both those of the previous auction held last week as well as prevailing rates at the secondary market.
At the latest auction of Treasury bills (T-bills), the benchmark 91-day T-bill fetched an average of 4.858 percent. This was 2.6 basis points lower than the previous average of 4.884 percent.
Also, the 182-day T-bill averaged 5.044 percent, down 1.4 bps from 5.048 percent.
Further, the 364-day T-bill averaged 5.093 percent. This went down by 0.4 bp from 5.097 percent last week.
Meanwhile, during the auction, Bloomberg Valuation rates for comparative government securities were all higher than auction results.
Three-month securities were tagged at 4.826 percent, while six-month debt had 5.098 percent and the 12-month debt had 5.163 percent.
“The auction was 3.9 times oversubscribed with total bids reaching P85.4 billion,” the Treasury said in a statement.
Considering that, the auction committee awarded P10.5 billion worth of 181-day T-bills. The original offer was P7.5 billion.
As planned, the Treasury raised P7 billion from 91-day bills and P7.5 billion from 363-day bills.
According to Michael Ricafort, chief economist at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., T-bill yields went lower for the 16th week in 17 weeks.
Ricafort said in a commentary that the recent decline in the Philippine stock market “partly benefited relatively safer havens such as Treasury bills.”
