MANILA — The rate of the Philippine Treasury bills (T-bills) fell across-the-board Monday due to strong demand.
The bellwether 91-day paper’s rate dropped to 5.484 percent from 5.534 percent for the 90-day paper during the auction last January 28.
Investors submitted a total of PHP11.331 billion worth of bids, more than twice the PHP6 billion offering. The auction committee made a full award.
Average of the 182-day paper declined to 5.867 percent from 5.892 percent last week.
This tenor was offered for PHP6 billion and was met with PHP11.429 billion worth of tenders. This was also fully awarded.
The one-year paper’s average rate went down to 5.924 percent from the previous week’s 5.946 percent.
It was awarded in full after the PHP8 billion offering was met with a total of PHP10.897 billion worth of tenders.
National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon dubbed the auction results as “very healthy” given the slide of interest rates and strong demand for the debt paper.
“All the rates are declining so that’s in anticipation that inflation will continue to decline,” she told journalists after the auction.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is scheduled to release the January 2019 inflation report on Tuesday, January 5.
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), for one, forecasts rate of price increases to stay within 4.3-5.1 percent.
Domestic Inflation peaked at 6.7 percent in September and October 2018 and slowed to 6 percent and 5.1 percent in the next two months.
Last year, inflation averaged at 5.2 percent, way higher than the government’s 2 to 4 percent target for the period.
This year, monetary officials expect inflation to go back to within target levels as supply side factors, which is the reason for the surge of inflation last year, has been addressed.
