‘Dovish’ BSP signals drag down T-bill rates
Yields on short-dated local debts of the government fell during Monday’s sale of Treasury bills (T-bills) as investors welcomed the latest “dovish” signals from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Eli Remolona Jr.
That, in turn, allowed the Marcos administration to upsize its offering.
Auction results showed the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) was able to borrow P30.8 billion via T-bills, bigger than its initial plan to raise P22 billion.
The offering attracted P118.9 billion in total bids, exceeding the original size of the issuance by 5.4 times.
Apart from the robust demand, Michael Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said the T-bill rates also fell because of the recent policy hints from Remolona, who had said that a rate cut was “on the table” at the April 10 meeting of the Monetary Board.
“The latest Treasury bill average auction yields again slightly corrected lower for the third straight week, after the latest reiteration of dovish signals from BSP Governor Remolona,” Ricafort said.
The BTr said the 91-day T-bill fetched an average rate of 5.118 percent, cheaper than the 5.178 percent recorded in the previous week,
The average rate for the 182-day debt paper fell to 5.496 percent, from 5.548 percent before.
Lastly, domestic creditors asked for an average yield of 5.697 percent for the 364-day T-bill, down from 5.773 percent seen in the last auction.
For this year, the Marcos administration is targeting to borrow P2.55 trillion from creditors at home and abroad to plug a projected budget hole amounting to P1.54 trillion, or equivalent to 5.3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
