Tamer inflation spurs queue for gov’t IOUs

The Bureau of the Treasury on Monday sold all P15 billion in T-bills as the yield for the benchmark 91-day debt paper declined amid expectations of easing inflation.

The Treasury awarded P4 billion in three-month IOUs at 5.635 percent, down from 5.787 percent last week.

It also sold P5 billion in 182-day Treasury bills at 5.958 percent, even as the average rate inched up from 5.927 percent during the previous auction.

The P6 billion in 364-day T-bills, meanwhile, fetched 5.961 percent, below the 6.044 percent annual rate last week.

In all, investors tendered a total of P25.7 billion across the three tenors, making the auction oversubscribed.

“We had a full award given the expectation of moderating inflation for March,” National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon told reporters after the auction.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas last week said it projected headline inflation for March to have had settled within the range of 3.1-3.9 percent, within the government’s 3-4 percent target.

De Leon said it helped that the Treasury reduced the volume of weekly T-bills offering to P15 billion in the second quarter from P20 billion in the first quarter.