Treasury bill rates pull back

Average rates on the three-month and six-month Treasury bills went down, but the government failed to raise as much funds as planned.

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) awarded a total of P10 billion, or two-thirds of the P15- billion offering.

On Monday, the yield on the bellwether 91-day T-bill eased by 21.5 basis points to average at 1.46 percent.

Rates on the 182-day bill also decreased, by 8 basis points, to average 1.812 percent.

The BTr rejected all tenders for the 364-day bill, of which P5 billion worth was offered.

Healthy demand

Monday’s auction “saw rates declined [for the 91-day and 182-day T-bills] amid healthy demand and compressed bids close to secondary [market] levels,” National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon told reporters.

“In contrast, [there was] full rejection for 364-day [tenders amid] tepid demand and unacceptable rates as the market provided buffers for [policy] rate advances as hinted by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and another aggressive 50-bps hike by the United States Federal Reserve to cool down inflation,” de Leon added.

Investors tendered a total of P42.88 billion or almost three times the total offered volume.

For the benchmark bill alone, tenders reached P22.34 billion, more than four times the P5-billion offer.

Lenders made available P14.96 billion for the 182-day bill, almost three times the offer.