THE Bureau of the Treasury has once again fully awarded P15 billion in Treasury Bills (T-bills) as rates moved sideways.
All tenors fetched average rates that are lower than the secondary market rates.
The auction was also more than thrice oversubscribed as it attracted total tenders amounting to P50.9 billion. National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon expressed satisfaction with the auction results, saying they have observed good investor appetite.
“[It’s] well participated and outcome expected as liquidity remains to be deployed,” De Leon said.
The 91-day T-bills’ average rate inched up by 1.1 basis points to reach 1.077 percent from 1.066 percent in the previous auction. Total bids for the tenor hit P14.6 billion, nearly thrice the P5-billion offer.
For the 182-day T-bills, the average rate was almost flat at 1.408 percent, down only by 0.1 basis point from 1.407 percent. Tenders for the security stood at P19.02 billion, almost four times the P5-billion offer.
Meanwhile, the 364-day T-bills’ average rate slid to 1.612 percent, lower by 0.5 basis points from 1.617 percent. The debt paper attracted P17.24 billion in tenders, more than thrice the P5-billion offer.
For August, the Treasury has set to borrow P200 billion from the local debt market, slightly lower than the P235 billion it programmed in July.
This year, the national government programmed to borrow a total of P3.1-trillion, of which around 75 percent is expected to be raised through domestic sources.
The outstanding debt of the national government has already piled up to P11.166 trillion as of end-June this year, swelling by 23.3 percent from P9.054 trillion a year ago.
This year’s ratio of debt to gross domestic product (GDP) is forecasted by finance officials to rise to 59.1 percent from 54.6 percent in 2020. It is also expected to peak next year at 60.8 percent—slightly above the internationally accepted threshold— before gradually tapering off to 60.7 percent and 59.7 percent in 2023 and 2024.
Prior to the pandemic, the government notched a record-low debt-to-GDP ratio of 39.6 percent in 2019.
The Department of Finance is projecting that the government’s debt-to-GDP ratio will return to the pre-pandemic level by 2024 or 2025 if their recommended fiscal measures will be passed early by the next administration and if the economy quickly recovers.