DESPITE inflation concerns that pushed up interest rates, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) fully awarded P20 billion in Treasury Bills (T-bills) last Monday.
Broken down, the Treasury awarded P5 billion in 91-day T-bills, P5 billion for 182-day T-bills and P10 billion for 364-day T-bills.
The BTr also opened the tap facility auction for an additional P5.08 billion offering of 364-day T-bills. However, only P5 billion of the bids were accepted and the rest were rejected.
“Rates continue to creep with lingering concerns on higher inflation. We opened the tap facility for one year,” National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon told reporters last Monday.
The BTr auction committee said the 91-day T-bills fetched an average rate of 1.336 percent, higher than the 1.139 percent recorded in the last auction.
In terms of the 182-day T-bills, the average interest rate reached 1.718 percent, still higher than the 1.316 percent posted in the previous auction.
The 364-day T-bills had an average interest rate of 1.997 percent, higher than the 1.316 percent registered in the last auction.
The 1.997 percent interest rate was the same one used for the tap facility, which will be issued on March 24, 2021 and have a maturity date of March 23, 2022.
“The auction was more than three times oversubscribed with total tenders reaching P64 billion. With its decision, the committee was able to raise the full program of P20 billion for the auction,” the BTr said in a statement.
The country’s inflation rate continued its climb from 4.6 percent in January to 4.7 percent in February, government data last Friday revealed. The February figure is the highest since the 5.1 percent recorded in December 2018 and the 2.6 percent in February last year.
In the first two months of the year, inflation averaged 4.5 percent. For this year, the government’s target range for inflation is 2 to 4 percent.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin E. Diokno last Friday allayed investor worries on the spike, saying the acceleration of prices in February are still supply-side in nature and will likely taper off in the coming months.
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