BTr raises P12.1B

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTR) raised P12.1 billion from the treasury bills it offered Monday, capping rising yields on the 182- and 364-day IOUs as the market braces for looming interest rate hikes by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas as well as the US Federal Reserve.

The Treasury awarded all P4 billion in the benchmark 91-day T-bills at an average rate of 3.291 percent, down from 3.308 percent last week.

But out of the P5-billion offering for the 182-day treasury bonds, only P3.4 billion were accepted as the Treasury capped the rate at 4.185 percent, up from last week’s 4.045 percent.

The annual rate for the 364-day debt paper was also capped at 4.767 percent, higher than 4.67 percent previously, such that the Treasury awarded only P4.6 billion of the P6 billion offered.

Bids across the three tenors totaled P28.2 billion, making the auction oversubscribed by 1.9 times the P15-billion total offering.

“It’s nothing that we didn’t expect coming from the still persistent concerns on inflation and expectations that the BSP will again hike this August,” National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon told reporters after the auction.

The BSP’s policy-setting Monetary Board already raised the policy rate to 3.5 percent or by 25 basis points each in May and June amid higher-than-expected inflation, which hit an over five-year high of 5.2 percent last month. —BEN O. DE VERA