THE Bureau of the Treasury awarded P17 billion in Treasury Bills (T-bills) as rates dropped across all tenors days before monetary authorities meet on Thursday.
The award was an upsize from the initial P15-billion offer after the auction committee decided to double the accepted non-competitive bids for the 364-day T-bills.
Monday’s auction was also nearly four-times oversubscribed with total submitted bids reaching P59 billion.
All tenors fetched average rates lower than the previous auction and the secondary market trading levels.
National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon told reporters that liquidity remains strong, adding that “stable inflation also pushed down rates.”
“For now, rates will stay low as markets anticipate MB [Monetary Board] to hold rates,” De Leon said in a message.
Monetary authorities are expected to meet on June 24; the fourth policy meeting for the year.
The average rate of the 91-day T-bills settled at 1.078 percent, down by 4 basis points from the previous auction’s 1.118 percent. Tenders for the security amounted to P15.75 billion, more than thrice the P5-billion offer.
Meanwhile, the 182-day T-bills recorded an average rate of 1.348 percent, slipping by 2.4 basis points from 1.372 percent previously. The tenor attracted a total of P18.967 billion, more than thrice the P5-billion offer.
Lastly, the 364-day T-bills’ average rate stood at 1.563 percent, declining by 1.4 basis points from 1.577 percent in the last auction. Total bids for the tenor hit P24.347 billion, nearly five times the initial P5-billion offer.
The Treasury plans to borrow P215 billion from the local debt market for this month; the amount up by 26 percent compared to the P170 billion it programmed to borrow per month in April and May. The bulk of the programmed domestic borrowings for June, or P140 billion, is set to be raised through Treasury bonds with longer tenors while P75 billion will be raised through T-bills.
For this year, the national government has set a P3.03-trillion gross borrowing program, roughly the same amount it borrowed in 2020.
The national government’s total outstanding debt continued to swell to a fresh record-high of 10.991 trillion in April this year as the country resorts to more borrowings to finance its pandemic response.
This was up by 2 percent from P10.77 trillion reported at the end of the year’s first quarter and it was also a 27.8-percent jump from P8.6 trillion of end-April last year.