T-bill rates decline; gov’t makes full award
MANILA -The national government finally was able to raise funds as planned from a weekly auction of Treasury bills after 12 weeks of partial awards, ahead of a Monetary Board policy meeting that is widely expected to result in a pause in interest rate hikes.
On May 15, the auction committee led by the Bureau of the Treasury was able to raise a total of P15 billion while keeping average yields below rates lower.
The average rate on the benchmark 91-day T-bills decreased by 1.7 basis points (bps) to 5.874 percent from 5.891 percent last week.
For the 182-day T-bills, the new average yield was 11.8 bps lower at 5.991 compared to the previous 6.109 percent.
Likewise, the average rate for the 364-day T-bills went down by 18.3 bps to 6.028 percent from 6.211 percent.
Against average rates for comparable deals done at the secondary market, the yield on three-month T-bills was 4.3 bps lower and the six-month T-bills 6.6 bps lower. However, the average for the 12-month T-bills was 3.4 bps higher.
“The auction was four times oversubscribed with total bids reaching P59.6 billion,” the committee said in a statement.
