By Joann Villanueva/PNA
MANILA — Demand for higher tenor Treasury bills (T-bills) resulted in the full award of both the 182-day and 364-day papers Monday but only a partial award of the 91- day securities.
The Bureau of the Treasury’s (BTr) auction committee awarded PHP6 billion worth of 182-day T-bill and PHP8 billion worth of one-year securities but accepted only PHP3.455 billion for the 91-day paper.
Tenders for the six-month paper amounted to PHP11.76 billion while it was PHP12.818 billion for the one-year T-bill and PHP6.605 billion for the 91-day tenor.
Also, the rate of the longer tenor papers declined while the bellwether paper rose slightly.
Average rate of the three-month paper rose to 5.787 percent this week from 5.786 percent during the auction last March 18.
On the other hand, rates of the six-month and the one-year bill declined to 5.927 percent and 6.044 percent, respectively.
During the auction last week, these were at 5.987 percent for the six-month paper and 6.051 percent for the one-year T-bill.
Deputy Treasurer Erwin Sta. Ana attributed Monday’s T-bill auction results to higher demand for the longer-tenor paper.
“Well, I think, for the 91-day they’re actually factoring in policy adjustments by the BSP, what happens in the short term, in terms of would there be further easing of inflation,” he said.
Rate of price increases in the country continues to decline after peaking at 6.7 percent in September to October 2018.
Last February, it decelerated further to 3.8 percent from the previous month’s 4.4 percent, which authorities traced to slower price upticks on the prices of heavily-rated food and non-alcoholic beverages.
Asked whether the decline can be expected for government-issued securities in the near term, Sta. Ana said “we can’t say for sure but it looks like it’s going to follow the inflation trajectory”.
“So the interest rates may behave that way assuming there are no other shocks that are involved. So we may see that following the inflation path,” he added.
