Government sells P9 billion worth of T-bills

MANILA, Philippines - The government sold P9-billion worth of Treasury bills (T-bills) yesterday as the bids received by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) exceeded the programmed debt sale for all three tenors.

This developed as the government said that it has no plans to tap the foreign commercial debt market in the remaining months of the year for the remaining borrowing requirement of $500 million for 2011.

“There’s no plan to issue that anymore this year...at least for now,” National Treasurer Roberto Tan said, “adding that the government’s cash position remains strong.” 

The 90-day T-bill fetched an average rate of 0.919 percent from the previous 0.690 percent.

For this paper, a day short because of the holidays, investors tendered a total of P5.184 billion, allowing the government to sell the programmed debt sale of P2 billion.

Similarly, the 181-day debt paper fetched an average rate of 1.115 percent, from 0.682 percent previously. Total bids for this paper reached P8.598 billion, more than double the P3 billion offered by the Treasury.

On the other hand, the yield on the 363-day debt paper reached 1.079 percent from 1.750 percent.

For this debt paper, investors tendered a total of P7.673 billion, above the programmed sale of P4 billion.

National Treasurer Roberto Tan said the auction committee is pleased with the results of yesterday’s auction.

“Rates are adjusting now toward secondary market levels,” Tan told reporters after the auction.

In the last T-bill auction on Oct. 3, the Treasury rejected all bids as banks submitted unreasonably high offers.

Yesterday’s debt sale is part of the P99 billion local borrowing program of the government for the fourth quarter of the year.

Of the P99 billion, the government plans to issue P54 billion worth of T-bills and P45 billion worth of T-bonds through the issuance of seven,10 and 25-year T-bonds.

The P99 billion programmed debt sale is lower than the borrowing program of P117-billion set in the second and third quarters of the year and the P114-billion programmed borrowing in the first quarter of the year.

The government borrows from the domestic market through the issuance of T-bills and bonds.