91-day T-bill rate falls as inflation cools
MANILA -Yields on the benchmark Treasury bill (T-bill) fell by 17.7 basis points to an average of 5.973 percent from 6.15 percent amid mixed results on Monday’s weekly auction.
The auction committee led by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) raised P5 billion each from the 91-day and 182-day T-bills, and the average rate on the latter stayed at 6.266 percent.
However, the national government raised only P4.417 billion out of the P5 billion it offered for the year-long T-bills. The yield averaged 6.339 percent or 5.3 basis points (bps) higher than last week’s 6.286 percent.
Had the committee gone for a full award of the 364-day T-bills, the average rate would have gone up by 7.1 bps to 6.357 percent.
“The auction was 1.8 times oversubscribed, attracting P27.6 billion in total tenders,” the BTr said in a statement. “With its decision, the committee raised P14.4 billion of the P15 billion total offering.”
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said the latest T-bill auction results had come after signals from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on a possible policy rate cut if the monthly inflation readout falls below 4 percent.
Inflation in the Philippines has been cooling down for five straight months from 8.7 percent in January to 5.4 percent in June.
