Treasury awards P25B in 7-year T-bonds at 3.5%

The Bureau of the Treasury on Tuesday sold P25 billion in newly issued seven-year T-bonds at a coupon rate of 3.5 percent.

In a statement, the Treasury said the rate was “[aligned] with other existing tenor benchmarks and is backed by healthy market demand.”

The Treasury noted that when it last issued new seven-year T-bonds in March 2014, the IOUs’ coupon rate was a similar 3.5 percent.

A total of P54.943 billion was tendered for the treasury bonds maturing on April 21, 2023, making the auction oversubscribed by more than twice.

Early this month, the Treasury only partially awarded the T-bills it offered as yields rose across the board.

A total of P16.35 billion in treasury bills was sold out of the P20 billion auctioned last April 4.

As of end-March, the total amount of outstanding government-issued debt paper declined to P3.84 trillion from P3.85 trillion a month ago as more T-bonds matured during the month.

At the end of the first quarter, treasury bonds accounted for the bulk of outstanding debt paper, with a face amount totaling P3.56 trillion.

Outstanding treasury bills, meanwhile, reached P278.9 billion. Ben O. de Vera