35-day treasury bill rate inches up

The rate of the 35-day treasury bill inched up to 2.065 percent on Tuesday, as more investors now preferred to place their bets on longer securities.

The Bureau of the Treasury fully awarded P15 billion of the five-week IOUs maturing on July 8.

But the average rate increased from 2.024 percent when the same tenor was sold two weeks ago.

National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon explained that rates were expected to be “within vicinity of inflation.”

Headline inflation averaged 2.6 percent at end-April. Last month’s inflation rate will be released by the Philippine Statistics Authority on Friday, June 5.“We now see appetite for intermediate part of the curve,” De Leon added.

Even as the auction attracted P34.39 billion in bids or double the offering, De Leon said the Treasury did not open the tap facility window for the 35-day IOUs.

Amid the lockdown due to COVID-19 in April, the Treasury resumed selling this shortest tenor last issued in 2004.Last Monday, the Treasury accepted an additional P10 billion worth of 364-day T-bills via tap to the 11 government securities eligible dealers-market makers.

Tenders for Monday’s tap offer reached P28.6 billion. INQ