Treasury bill yields were lower at the auction Monday, with demand for shorter-dated government securities strong ahead of the release of April inflation data.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas projects April inflation to settle within the 3.5 to 4.3 percent range after rising to 3.7 percent in March. Data due Tuesday would likely be higher on continued price increase for rice as well as gasoline and the depreciation of the peso.
The entire offered amount of P15 billion—P5 billion for each maturity—was awarded in full as total demand reached P54.95 billion.
Yield on the 91-day treasury bill eased to 5.780 percent from last week’s 5.869 percent while that on the 182-day bill slipped to 5.930 percent from 5.988 percent previously.
Meantime, yield on the 364-day paper retreated to 6.056 percent from 6.081 percent.
The average rate of all maturities at Monday’s auction were in line with the results of trades in the secondary debt market.
