Treasury raises P 15B from T-bills; rates up
Rosalia de Leon
The Bureau of the Treasury on Monday raised P15 billion from short-dated treasury bills even as rates rose across-the-board on expectations that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will continue to keep key rates steady in the near term amid fragile economic recovery from the pandemic-induced slump.
The Treasury sold P5 billion each in the benchmark 91-, 182-, and 364-day debt paper.
The average rates awarded for three- and six-month IOUs inched up to 1.15 percent and 1.413 percent, respectively, from 1.143 percent and 1.401 percent last week.
One-year treasury bills also fetched a higher annual rate of 1.621 percent from 1.616 percent during the previous auction.
National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said the full award despite upward bid rates came on the back of market expectations that the BSP’s Monetary Board will hold interest rates on Thursday.
Across the three tenors, investors tendered a total of P37.99 billion, making the auction 2.5 times oversubscribed.
On Tuesday, the Treasury will start selling 5.5-year retail treasury bonds (RTBs) to raise at least P30 billion during the rate-setting auction.
The government’s 26th overall and the Duterte administration’s ninth RTB issuance will also allow investors to switch their bond holdings of five- and 10-year debt paper maturing in January next year with the fresh RTBs.
The new IOUs due in 2027 will be sold for a minimum of P5,000 per bond and multiples thereof.
The RTB public offer and exchange period will be until Nov. 26. Settlement will be on Dec. 2.
Like previous offerings as well as the government’s recent foray into retail dollar bonds (RDBs), small investors can buy RTBs from the Treasury’s online ordering facility or through the mobile apps of Bonds.PH and the all-digital Overseas Filipino Bank (OFBank).
Due to the 11-day RTB offering, the Treasury canceled the earlier scheduled auctions of P35-billion each in five- and seven-year T-bonds on Nov. 16 and 23, respectively.
