MANILA – The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) on Monday fully awarded bids for Treasury bills (T-bills).
The 91-, 182-, and 364-day T-bills fetched average rates of 5.102 percent, 5.582 percent, and 5.973 percent, respectively.
The average rates of 182- and 364-day T-bills were slightly higher than last week's 5.582 percent and 5.973 percent.
The average rate of 91-day T-bills, however, slightly declined from last week's 5.140 percent.
The auction attracted PHP46.9 billion in total tenders, prompting the auction committee to double the accepted volume of non-competitive bids for the 91- and 182-day T-bills.
With its decision, the BTr raised PHP19 billion compared to the PHP15 billion initial program.
In a comment, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation chief economist Michael Ricafort said T-bill auction yields were slightly higher for the third straight auction.
Ricafort said auction yields moved closer to the comparable short-term PHP Bloomberg Valuation Service (BVAL) auction yields as of Jan. 5, 2024 which was at 5.23 percent for the three-month, 5.51 percent for the six-month, and 5.83 percent for the one-year period.
"Treasury bill auction yields mostly continued to slightly go up, after T-bill and short-term PHP BVAL yields are still below the BSP overnight (1-day) auction yield at 6.39 percent," he said.
Ricafort said offsetting positive factors include a possible cut in local policy rate by end-2024 and easing of inflation to 3.9 percent in December 2023.
"On external factors, T-bill average auction yields again corrected slightly higher after global crude oil prices corrected to one-week highs recently amid tensions at the Red Sea with Houthi rebels that could increase shipping costs and could lead to some shipping delays," he said. (PNA)
