T-bill rates down for fifth straight week
The government borrowed more than planned during Monday’s Treasury bill (T-bill) auction. Interest rates fell for the fifth straight week amid still-benign inflation that could spur another rate cut.
Auction results showed the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) raised P37.8 billion in T-bills. This was more than the original P27 billion program.
The strong demand led to P158.2 billion in total tenders, exceeding the original size of the issuance by 5.9 times.
This also prompted the BTr to double the accepted noncompetitive bids across all tenors to P7.2 billion each.
“The Treasury bill average auction yields were again slightly, as the latest local inflation is still relatively benign at 2 percent in January 2026, still at the lower-end of the BSP’s inflation target range of 2 to 4 percent,” said Michael Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.
“Weaker local GDP (gross domestic product) data [also] increased the odds of a possible -0.25 rate cut on the next rate-setting meeting on Feb. 19, 2026. However, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reiterated that it is already near the end of its monetary easing cycle,” he added.
The 90-day T-bill fetched an average rate of 4.492 percent, lower than last week’s 4.579 percent.
Meanwhile, local creditors asked for an average rate of 4.578 percent for the 181-day debt note, down from 4.672 percent in the previous auction.
The 364-day debt T-bill yielded 4.615 percent, lower than the 4.689 percent last week.
Ricafort added that the strong peso exchange also contributed to the lower yields. The peso closed at a four-month high of 58.455 against the dollar yesterday, Feb. 9.
