T-bill rates rise for 4th week amid Iran war
The Marcos administration continued to borrow less than planned from short-term securities as investors sought higher returns for the fourth straight week amid the Middle East war.
Auction results from Monday’s sale of Treasury bills (T-bills) showed that the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) raised P21.7 billion, falling short of its P27-billion planned offering.
Still, the auction was 1.4 times oversubscribed, with total tenders reaching P36.7 billion.
Of the total raised, P9 billion was awarded for each of the 91- and 182-day T-bills, while the 364-day tenor fetched only P3.7 billion.
The outcome reflects the government’s “balancing act” between securing funding and managing borrowing costs, as earlier signaled by Finance Secretary Frederick Go.
“We will accommodate, but we will reject if the bids are too aggressive. It is a balancing act,” Go said in a recent Bloomberg interview.
Yields continued to climb across all tenors, tracking heightened global uncertainty as the Middle East conflict entered its fourth week. The resulting energy shock has pushed oil prices higher, weakened the peso past the 60-per-dollar level, and fueled expectations of inflation reaching as high as 7.5 percent this March, among others.
Average yield on the 91-day T-bill rose to 5.004 percent from 4.900 percent previously.
The 182-day paper climbed to 5.032 percent from 4.948 percent, while the 364-day tenor increased to 5.166 percent from 5.066 percent.
According to Michael Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., T-bill yields rose by 0.06 to 0.12 percentage points, marking their highest levels in five to six months.
