MANILA – The government raised PHP17 billion from the Treasury bills (T-bills) auction, higher than the initial PHP15-billion program as bids amounted to more than PHP40 billion.
The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said it fully awarded bids for T-bills during Monday's auction.
The 91-, 182-, and 364-day T-bills fetched average rates of 5.506 percent, 5.879 percent and 6.064 percent, respectively.
The average rate of the 91-day and 182-day T-bills rose from last week's 5.461 percent and 5.873 percent.
The average rate of the 364-day debt paper, however, slightly declined from last week's 6.075 percent.
"The auction was 3.3 times oversubscribed, attracting PHP42.3 billion in total tenders and prompting the Committee to double the accepted non-competitive bids for the 364-day security," the BTr said.
"With its decision, the Committee raised PHP17.0 billion through the auction from the initial program of PHP15.0 billion," it added.
In a Viber message, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation chief economist Michael Ricafort said the average auction yields were mostly higher ahead of the five-year Retail Treasury Bond (RTB) offering on Tuesday.
Ricafort said the RTB offering "could siphon off some of the excess peso liquidity from the financial system, especially before the PHP700 billion total RTB maturities in early March 2024."
He added T-bill yields also continued to be slightly higher after the recent increase in global crude oil prices and ahead of the latest Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas rate-setting on Feb. 15. (PNA)
