Average yields on Treasury bills inched higher at Monday’s auction, as global uncertainties continued to damp expectations of a sustained decline in local inflation.
Total bids reached P74.2 billion—still robust, though slightly lower than last week’s P80.3 billion. The Bureau of the Treasury awarded the full P25 billion on offer.
The yield on the 91-day T-bill rose to 5.573 percent from 5.546 percent last week. The average rate for the 182-day paper also increased slightly to 5.667 percent from 5.655 percent, while the 364-day T-bill climbed to 5.697 percent from 5.688 percent.
Yields could have risen more if not for expectations of slower inflation in April. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) projects inflation to ease further to as low as 1.3 percent, after dropping to a near five-year low of 1.8 percent in March. The upper end of the BSP’s April forecast is 2.1 percent.
Official April inflation data will be released Tuesday.
A further decline in inflation could give the BSP more room to loosen monetary policy in the coming months in a bid to support economic growth.
