By Joann Villanueva/PNA
MANILA — The rates of Philippine Treasury bills (T-bills) rose on Monday but the auction committee only made partial awards as investors asked for higher rates.
The average rate of the bellwether 91-day paper went up to 5.786 percent from 5.716 percent last March 11.
The rate of the 182-day paper rose to 5.987 percent and the one-year’s to 6.051 percent. These were at 5.936 percent and 6.018 percent, for the 182-day and 364-day, respectively in the previous auction.
National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said they only awarded partially because “we don’t see the need for any significant increase in the rates.”
The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) offered the three-month paper for PHP6 billion and awarded PHP3.386 billion. Tenders reached PHP6.686 billion.
Investors submitted a total of PHP9.48 billion worth of bids for the six-month paper but the auction committee awarded PHP4.96 billion.
The bids for the one-year paper reached PHP8.766 billion, higher than the PHP8-billion offer. The auction committee awarded PHP5.096 billion worth of debt securities.
De Leon said that with slower inflation rates, analysts project Philippine monetary officials to keep the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) key rates steady for the rest of the month.
BSP’s policy-making Monetary Board (MB) will have its second rate-setting meet on March 21.
It has kept the central bank’s key rates steady since December last year after hiking them by a total of 175 basis points in 2018 on account of the elevated inflation rate, which peaked at 6.7 percent last September to October.
