Treasury raises P24B from T-bills as rates continue to fall

The Bureau of the Treasury on Monday (May 25) raised P24 billion or a fifth more than its P20-billion T-bills offering as rates continued to decline across the board.

The Treasury sold P5 billion in the benchmark 91-day IOUs at 2.058 percent, down from 2.09 percent last week.

It also awarded 5 billion in 182-day debt paper at 2.114 percent, down from 2.193 percent during the previous auction.

For 364-day T-bills, the Treasury sold P14 billion, instead of only P10 billion, at 2.508 percent, down from 2.653 percent previously.

Tenders across all the three tenors totalled P94.3 billion, making the auction over four times oversubscribed.

National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon said investor sentiment was “supported by ample liquidity and possible Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) action to trim RRR again,” referring to banks’ reserve requirement ratio.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the BSP had reduced bank reserves by 200 basis points (bps), freeing an estimated P220 billion in liquidity into the financial system.

Due to strong demand for one-year T-bills, the Treasury opened its tap facility window to sell another P10 billion through its 11 accredited securities dealers.

Edited by TSB