91-day T-bill rate eases; market digests possible reserves cut

MANILA  -The average rate on the benchmark 91-day Treasury bills decreased further by 9.8 basis points (bps) amid mixed results in the latest auction, with the government raising a total of P15 billion as planned.

The yield on the three-month T-bills settled at 5.573 percent from 5.671 percent in the previous weekly auction.

Meanwhile, the average yield on the 182-day T-bills increased by 1.7 bps to average 5.993 percent from 5.986 percent.

On the other hand, the average rate on the 364-day T-bills decreased by 3.7 bps to 6.297 percent from 6.334 percent.

“The auction was 3.3 times oversubscribed with total bids reaching P49.1 billion,” the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said in a statement.

The BTr added that the resulting average yields were all lower than prevailing secondary market rates.

At the Bloomberg Valuation Service, the yield on the three month bill was 5.752 percent.

The yield on the six-month bill was 5.999 percent and the average rate for the 12-month bill was 6.304 percent.

Michael Ricafort, chief economist at the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said yields were lower compared with levels last week on recent signals of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas policy rate cut in the first quarter of 2024.

Ricafort said the market was also taking note of the possibility of a further cut in banks’ reserve requirement ratio later this year. INQ