Rosalia de Leon
The Bureau of the Treasury on Monday raised P17 billion from short-dated treasury bills at lower rates on the back of robust investor demand amid oozing liquidity.
The Treasury awarded P5 billion each for the benchmark 91- and 182-day tenors, while it accepted double of the noncompetitive bids for the 364-day to raise a bigger P7 billion.
The three-month treasury bills were sold at an average of 1.06 percent, down from 1.07 percent last week.
The six-month securities were awarded at 1.385 percent, down from 1.389 percent previously.
The one-year IOUs fetched an annual rate of 1.582 percent, down from 1.597 percent.
National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said it seemed that investors were no longer as worried about elevated inflation unlike in previous auctions.
“Liquidity is very much around and we have P22 billion in maturities this week. Placements remain in short-tenor buckets,” De Leon said.
De Leon said the weekly volume of next month’s Treasury auctions may likely be the same—it offered P15 billion in T-bills and P35 billion worth of bonds per week in recent months.
Monday’s auction attracted P63.87 billion in bids, making it four times oversubscribed.
While inflation concerns may be taking a backseat among investors in government securities, think tanks on Monday said the high price environment might not help in economic recovery.