Treasury bill yields inched up at the auction Monday as the market waits for clearer signal from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on monetary policy easing.
Even with softening June inflation data, the central bank is still waiting for additional indicators to determine if it is time to loosen up the monetary settings. Before pausing in October last year, the central bank aggressively raised interest rates by a total 4.50 percentage points to 6.50 percent to control inflationary pressure. The next policy meeting is set in August.
The Bureau of the Treasury, however, continued to take advantage of strong demand for T-bills, issuing more six-month debt papers as bids were nearly three times the offered amount of P6.5 billion to a total P17.53 billion. The offered amount of P6.5 billion for the 91-day bill and P7 billion for the 364-day debt paper were awarded in full.
Yield on the 91-day bill rose to 5.717 percent from last week’s 5.698 percent while the rate for the 182-day bill rose marginally to 5.978 percent from 5.968 percent. The one-year T-bill yield was flat at 6.072 percent from the previous auction’s 6.073 percent.
On Tuesday, the BTr will auction P30 billion worth of 10-year treasury bonds. The debt paper was originally issued in January 2024 at a coupon of 6.25 percent.
