T-bill rates continue to inch up
Treasury bill rates further rose across the board on Tuesday as investors sought higher returns for short-dated government securities while the central bank paused from monetary easing.
The Bureau of the Treasury sold all P20 billion it auctioned as the average rates across the three tenors remained below secondary market benchmarks.
The Treasury awarded P5 billion in the benchmark 91-day bills at an average rate of 1.18 percent, up from 1.131 percent last week.
It also sold P5 billion in 182-day securities at 1.421 percent, up from 1.407 percent previously.
The P10-billion 364-day debt paper fetched an annual rate of 1.788 percent, up from 1.751 percent.
National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon attributed the slight increase in yields to the market’s reaction to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ decision to pause from interest rate cuts as well as the US Federal Reserve’s new framework on inflation targeting, which she noted allowed the yield curve to steepen.
“Still, rates remain low with good inshore liquidity as subscriptions are more than twice our ask volume,” De Leon said.
Tenders totaled P55.7 billion, making the auction more than 2.7 times oversubscribed. INQ
