Gov’t raises P6.7B from T-bills, turns down too high rates

Rosalia de Leon

The government raised P6.7 billion out of the planned P15 billion from the offering of Treasury bills (T-bills) as lenders’ asking rates remained high.

This happened as the auction committee led by the Bureau of the Treasury decided against any award in last week’s first attempt at domestic borrowing for November.

This week, the committee went for partial awards, raising P2.1 billion each from the 91-day and 364-day T-bills and P2.5 billion from the 182-day T-bills. The offer was for P5 billion for each tenor.

“Hopefully, we will be able to make a full award in succeeding bills auctions,” National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon told reporters.

With the partial awards, the interest rate for the three-month bills increased by 13 basis points (bps) to an average of 4.35 percent from 4.22 percent previously.

Similarly, the rate for the six-month bills went up by 15 bps to 4.8 percent from 4.65 percent, and for the yearlong bills by 12.5 bps to 5 percent from 4.875 percent.

Also, Monday’s results showed that prevailing rates at the secondary market were 49.4 bps lower for the 91-day bills at 3.856 percent, 25 bps lower for the 182-day bills at 4.55 percent, and 13.2 bps lower for the 364-day bills at 4.868 percent.

Of the three tenors, the 364-day T-bills were undersubscribed with only P4.7 billion tendered.

The three-month bills were oversubscribed with P9.35 billion tendered as were the six-month bills with P7.457 billion tendered.

—Ronnel W. Domingo INQ