Results were mixed during Monday’s Treasury bills (T-bills) auction, as the Auction Committee opted to fully award bids for the 182-day and 364-day T-bills while partially awarding the 91-day securities.
The 182-day T-bills fetched an average rate of 5.523 percent, while the 364-day T-bills had an average rate of 5.657 percent. In contrast, the 91-day T-bill was capped at 5.490 percent.
“The Treasury bill average auction yields were mostly marginally higher but essentially little changed after the latest Israel-Iran war, which led to global crude oil prices reaching new four-month highs and the U.S. dollar-peso exchange rate hitting 1.5-month highs at 56.50 levels. Both factors could lead to an increase in importation costs and overall inflation, potentially delaying future Federal Reserve rate cuts and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) rate cuts,” said Michael Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation.
Last week, the average rates for the 91-day, 182-day, and 364-day T-bills were recorded at 5.451 percent, 5.524 percent, and 5.656 percent, respectively.
The auction was thrice oversubscribed, attracting a total of PHP74.2 billion in tenders, which prompted the Committee to double the accepted non-competitive bids for the 182-day T-bills to PHP6.4 billion.
As a result of these decisions, the Committee raised a total of PHP26.7 billion from the initial PHP25 billion offer.