Treasury raises P81 billion from T-bill sale in January

MANILA, Philippines — The government borrowed a total of P81 billion through the issuance of short-term securities this month, exceeding its target after it upsized offers at the onset of the new year.

The Bureau of the Treasury yesterday made a full award of P15 billion on offer. This is the last T-bill auction for January.

This brought total T-bills raised for the month to P81 billion, which is eight percent above the programmed P75 billion to be borrowed from the local debt market.

This also came after the Treasury upsized to P17 billion and P19 billion the first two T-bills auctioned this month.

T-bill rates this month were generally mixed as the market awaits the US Federal Reserve decision on interest rates.

Yesterday’s auction was the fifth straight week of full award despite rates going up across the board in reference to last week’s yields.

The same goes for rates compared to the secondary market, with the exception of the 91-day offer.

The 91-day short-dated debt papers saw rates go down by 2.4 basis points to 5.398 percent, but above last auction’s level of 5.306 percent.

However, rates for the 182-day offer increased by 5.9 basis points to 5.81 percent from the secondary rate of 5.751 percent, and was higher from the last auction’s 5.766 percent.

Rates averaged 6.076 percent for the 364-day T-bills, 3.5 basis points higher than the secondary rate and also up from the last auction rate of 6.037 percent.

All securities were awarded at P5 billion each.

On the other hand, demand inched up almost 10 percent to P38.137 billion. The auction was oversubscribed by 2.54 times.

Bids went up to P12.37 billion and P14.307 billion for the six and 12-month offers, but slipped to P11.46 billion for the three-month securities.