Treasury bill yields were lower at Monday’s auction, dragged down by lower headline inflation in August that raised the possibility of further monetary policy easing by the central bank, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
Demand totaling P20 billion at the auction aggregated P64.5 billion, allowing the Bureau of the Treasury to increase the issue size to P22.6 billion.
Inflation in August decelerated to 3.3 percent — the slowest since January when it averaged 2.8 percent — after rising in July to 4.4 percent, or outside the target band of 2 percent and 4.0 percent this year.
The average rate for the 91-day paper declined to 5.840 from last week’s 5.947 percent while the 182-day bill slipped to 5.980 percent from 6.002 percent. The rate for the one-year bill also slipped to 6.029 present from 6.040 percent.
