T-bill rates rise on inflation recoil

The rates for the government’s short-term securities picked up across the board as the market expects inflation to have snapped four straight months of easing.

The Bureau of the Treasury yesterday fully awarded the entire P15 billion of Treasury-bills during the first auction for the debt paper this month.

Yields for the three tenors rose across the board in reference to last week’s rates.

This as the market is expecting that inflation saw an uptick in February after easing for four consecutive months due to expensive electricity costs and food items.

Even the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the headline rate could settle within the range of 2.8 percent to 3.6 percent.

The lower end of the forecast is the same rate as the January print of 2.8 percent.

The Philippine Statistics Authority will announce the latest headline inflation today.

Meanwhile, rates for the 91day offer inched up 4.9 basis points to 5.778 percent from the secondary level of 5.729 percent, as well as from the last auction rate of 5.71 percent.

Yields averaged 5.995 percent for the 182-day T-bills, 3.7 basis points higher than the secondary rate and also up from last week’s 5.971 percent.

The 364-day short-dated debt papers saw rates at 6.1 percent, slightly above the 6.085 percent in the previous auction.

Despite higher rates, the Treasury awarded P5 billion in each tenor.

T-bill demand went up three percent to P36.898 billion. The auction was oversubscribed by 2.46 times.

Bids went up to P9.428 billion and P13.31 billion for the three and six months, respectively, but slipped to P14.16 billion for the one-year securities.

For March, the Treasury aims to borrow P180 billion from domestic creditors. Of this, P60 billion is expected to come from short-dated T-bills.