BTr sells P15B in treasury bills

The Bureau of the Treasury on Monday sold all P15 billion in T-bills it offered as rates fell across the board.

The Treasury awarded P4 billion in 91-day debt paper at an average rate of 3.203 percent, down 4.1 basis points (bps) from 3.244 percent last week.

It also sold P5 billion worth of 182-day treasury bills at 4.064 percent, 5.3 bps lower than the 4.117 percent in the previous auction.

The Treasury likewise awarded P6 billion in 364-day debt paper at 4.869 percent, lower by 2.3 bps than last week’s 4.892 percent.

In a statement, the Treasury said the full award came on the back of “healthy market demand,” which pulled down yields below secondary market rates.

Bids totaled P43.1 billion across the three tenors, making the auction almost three times oversubscribed.

National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon told reporters after the auction that the most recent 50-bps hike in the policy rate to 4 percent by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas “calmed” markets.

The BSP’s most aggressive rate hike in 10 years came on the back of higher-than-expected inflation.

Headline inflation hit a new five-year high of 5.7 percent in July, bringing the seven-month average to 4.5 percent, above the government’s full-year target range of 2-4 percent.