Philippine Treasury Completes Full Allocation of T-bills Amid High Demand

In Manila, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) successfully allocated the entire amount of Treasury bills (T-bills) offered during Monday’s auction. The T-bills, spanning 91, 182, and 364 days, were sold at average rates of 5.318%, 5.662%, and 5.780% respectively. These rates were slightly above the PHP Bloomberg Valuation Service yields, which stood at 5.158% for the three-month term, 5.564% for the six-month term, and 5.743% for the one-year term. Michael Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, noted that the average yields at the T-bill auctions have been incrementally rising for the second consecutive week, influenced by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ decision to keep policy rates unchanged. He pointed out that the T-bill auction yields are now generally higher than the corresponding short-term PHP BVAL yields. The auction saw an overwhelming response, being oversubscribed by 2.6 times with total bids reaching PHP56.3 billion. Consequently, the BTr was able to raise the full intended amount of PHP22 billion from the auction.