RATES across all tenors inched up on Tuesday’s auction but the Bureau of the Treasury still fully awarded P15-billion in Treasury Bills (T-bills).
The auction also ended up thrice oversubscribed with total submitted bids reaching P41.8 billion.
All rates fetched by tenors, however, were all lower than secondary market trading levels.
National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon said the slight increase in rates was in line with the anticipation of the release of October inflation figures by the Philippine Statistics Authority this Friday and the official announcement by the US Federal Reserve on its tapering tack.
The Treasury kept shut the tap facility auction for an additional offering for any of the tenors.
The 91-day T-bills capped an average rate of 1.13 percent, higher by 1.1 basis points from 1.119 percent. Bids for the tenor amounted to P13.08 billion, more than twice the P5-billion offer.
For the 182-day T-bills, the average rate stood at 1.395 percent, up by 0.8 basis points from the previous auction’s 1.387 percent. The security attracted P14.94 billion in tenders, nearly five times the P5-billion offer.
The 364-day T-bills’ average rate rose to 1.613 percent, a 0.7-basis point difference from 1.606 percent previously. Bids for the debt paper reached P13.76 billion, more than double the P5-billion program for the tenor.
For this month, the Treasury is set to borrow P200 billion from the local debt market in November, the same amount it programmed to borrow last month.
The Treasury aims to raise P140 billion through auctioning off Treasury Bonds (T-bonds) while another P60 billion is programmed to be borrowed through Treasury Bills (T-bills).
This year, the national government programmed to borrow a total of P3.1-trillion, most of which is expected to be raised through domestic sources.
The government borrows to meet its spending requirements as well as to finance its budget deficit.
The national government’s budget deficit as of end-September has reached P1.14 trillion, surpassing the P879.2-billion shortfall in the same period last year. The wider gap resulted from government expenditures overtaking state revenues.
The national government’s outstanding debt as of end-September this year ballooned to another record high of P11.92 trillion, already breaching the government’s expected level of debt stock of P11.73 trillion by the end of this year.
This was also higher by 27.2 percent or P2.55 trillion than P9.37 trillion in the same period in 2020.