Gov’t raises P15B from IOUs; yields mixed

Changes in the yields on the government’s short-term IOUs were mixed on Monday after four weeks of decline across the board.

The yield on the bellwether 91-day Treasury bill rose by 1.9 basis points to average at 0.71 percent.

The rate on the 182-day IOUs, meanwhile, eased by 0.1 basis point to average 1.022 percent while those on the 364-day bill remained at an average of 1.408 percent.

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said in a statement the average rates on all three tenors were lower than benchmark rates at the secondary market.

The government raised P15 billion as planned—offering P5 billion for each tenor. Investors tendered a total of P53.8 billion or 3.6 times the total offered volume.

For the three-month T-bill alone, tenders reached P14.73 billion or close to thrice the offer.

Ample liquidity

Lenders made available P2146 billion for the 182-day bill, more than four times the offer. They also tendered a total of P17.56 billion for the 364-day paper, more than thrice the offer.

“Liquidity further boosted with P20 billion maturities seeking their home,” National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon told reporters, explaining why tenders continued to swamp the T-bill auctions.

As of the end of 2021, the national government’s debt stock stood at P11.73 trillion, increasing by 19.7 percent or P203 billion from P9.8 billion at end-2020.

The BTr said in a statement the decrease was due to a net redemption of domestic securities—more debt paper was redeemed than issued.

Debt-to-GDP ratio

Of the total outstanding debt, 30 percent was sourced externally while 70 percent were domestic borrowings.

At the same time, the debt-to-GDP ratio was registered at 60.5 percent, rising from 54.6 percent a year earlier, “but still within the accepted sustainable threshold as the economy continues to recover from the effects of the pandemic.”

Domestic debt amounted to P8.17 trillion, which was P271.09 billion or 22 percent higher compared to the end-November 2021 level.

Foreign debt was pegged at P3.56 trillion, which was P67.81 billion or 14.8 percent higher from the previous month. INQ