Strong demand allowed the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) to increase the amount of treasury bills it issued at the auction held Monday to P17 billion.
The BTr initially offered a total P15 billion—P5 billion each for 91-day, 182-day and 364-day treasury bills. An additional P2 billion in bids were accepted for the 364-day debt paper.
Tenders were nearly three times the offered amount, reaching a total P42.3 billion.
Even with strong demand, average interest rates on the three- and six-month bills continued to rise.
Yield on the 91-day bill rose to 5.506 percent from the previous auction’s 5.461 percent while that on the 182-day debt paper rose to 5.879 percent from 5.862 percent.
Yield on 364-day paper eased to 6.064 percent from 6.075 percent after December headline inflation rate eased sharply to 2.8 percent. Strong demand for one-year paper prompted the National Treasury to accept additional non-competitive bids.
On Tuesday, the BTr will auction 5-year, fixed-rate retail treasury bonds. The initial offer size is P30 billion. The offer also allows holders of retail treasury bonds or RTBs due next month to exchange the debt papers they hold.
