Treasury bill rates continue to decline

Treasury bill rates continued to fall across the board during Monday’s auction as the low interest rate environment attract robust demand for short-dated government securities.

The Bureau of the Treasury raised P20 billion from the auction and opened its tap facility window to sell another P5 billion in one-year debt paper, National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon said.

The Treasury awarded P5 billion in the benchmark 91-day bills at an average rate of 1.454 percent, down from 1.587 percent last week.

It also sold P5 billion in 182-day IOUs at 1.625 percent, down from 1.687 percent during the previous auction.

The 364-day treasury bills fetched 1.77 percent, lower than the previous annual rate of 1.782 percent, and the Treasury awarded all P10 billion it offered.

De Leon said the rates were stabilizing at these low levels.

Tenders across the three tenors amounted to P72.4 billion or more than 3.6 times the P20-billion total offering.

De Leon said the take-up for short-term placements in treasury bills did not affect the ongoing offer of five-year retail treasury bonds (RTB), which will be up for grabs until Aug. 7 at a coupon of 2.625 percent.

The government’s 24th RTB sale and the Duterte administration’s seventh issuance was also being made available on a mobile app as well as more online channels.

The RTBs’ selling agents include Asia United Bank, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, Banco De Oro Unibank, Bank of Commerce, BDO Capital and Investment Corp., BDO Private Bank, BPI Capital, China Bank, Citibank, CTBC Bank (Philippines), Development Bank of the Philippines, East West Bank, First Metro Investment Corp., ING Bank, Land Bank, Maybank Philippines, Metrobank, Philippine Bank of Communications, Philippine National Bank, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., Robinsons Bank, Security Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC and Union Bank. INQ