Treasury sells all P15B in T-bills offered

The Bureau of the Treasury on Monday sold all of the P15 billion T-bills it offered amid strong demand even as rates rose across the board.

The Treasury fully awarded P4 billion in benchmark 91-day debt paper at an average rate of 3.225 percent, up from 3.218 percent last week.

The P5 billion worth of 182-day IOUs, meanwhile, were sold at 4.101 percent, up from last week’s 4.07 percent.

As for the P6 billion in 364-day government securities, the annual rate inched up to 4.899 percent from 4.879 percent.

Citing “healthy market demand,” the Treasury said in a statement that tenders totaled P27.5 billion across three tenors, making the auction almost two times oversubscribed.

National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon told reporters that the rate increases were “just 1-3 basis points,” hence the full award.

De Leon noted that the market continued to prefer debt paper on the low end of the curve.

“At the same time, coming from the 100-basis point [interest rate] hike of the Monetary Board [as of August], I suppose there’s already some comfort from the market on the current rates,” she added.

Amid high inflation, the BSP’s policymaking Monetary Board raised the key policy rate by 25 basis points each in May and June, followed by 50 bps last month, the most aggressive hike in a decade. —BEN O. DE VERA