THE Bureau of the Treasury awarded P25 billion in Treasury bills (T-bills), which still enjoyed an overwhelming response from investors looking for a safe haven for their cash.
Monday’s auction was oversubscribed by almost three times the initial P25-billion offering as tenders reached P67.5 billion.
The government also opened a tap facility window for 364-day T-bills for a volume of P5 billion. However, all bids tendered at P1.1 billion were rejected by the auction committee.
“Risk aversion drove strong buying interest on haven assets particularly on the front end with inflation print seen the same as last month,” National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon told reporters last Monday.
BTr data showed that for the 91-day T-bills, the Auction Committee accepted P5 billion of the P12.650 billion bids at an interest rate of 1.295 percent, slightly higher than the 1.269 percent in the March 29 auction.
For the 182-day T-bills, the accepted bids reached P8 billion. A total of 16.712 billion bids were tendered and P8.712 billion were rejected. The interest rate for these T-bills was 1.646 percent, higher than the 1.609 percent in the previous auction.
In terms of the 365-day T-bills, a total of P12 billion bids were accepted of the P38.126 billion tenders. The interest rate was 1.912 percent, lower than the 1.926 percent recorded in the previous auction.
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 earlier 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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