Gov’t raises only P5B from treasury Bills

National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon / INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The government raised only P5 billion or just a third of the P15-billion target from treasury bills amid weak appetite from investors, who continued to ask for interest rates that were deemed too high.

The auction committee fully awarded its offer for the 182-day T-bills, the yield on which rose by 14.9 basis points (bps) to 3.684 percent from 3.485 percent previously.

Meanwhile, all tenders for the benchmark 91-day T-bill and the 364-day T-bill were rejected.

If the offers had been fully awarded, the rate on the benchmark bill would have surged 103.1 bps to 3.349 percent from 2.318 percent.

For the yearlong debt paper, the yield would have risen by 61 bps to 4.392 percent from 3.782 percent.

These would have been higher the the prevailing rates at the second market—2.461 percent 91 days and 3.977 percent

Lenders were on a “wait-and-see mode awaiting the data on United States inflation for August, but [they] remain cautious with continuous US Federal Reserve statements on the need to be restrictive” to conquer inflation, National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon told reporters.

Investors tendered a total of only P19.48 billion, which was even less than the P26.65 billion tendered during last week’s auction.

Tenders reached P4.65 billion and P4.86 billion for the 91-day and 364-day bills, respectively, both below the offer of P5 billion for each tenor.

—RONNEL W. DOMINGO INQ