NG raises only nearly half of T-bills on offer

THE national government only raised a little over half of the proceeds it intended to raise on Monday’s Treasury bills (T-bills) auction, according to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTR).

The BTR said the auction committee raised P8.6 billion of the P15 billion offering on the back of mixed results on Monday.

The government received a total of P24.047 billion worth of offers for the notes but rejected P15.447 billion tenders.

“The Auction Committee decided to fully award bids for the 91-day T-bill while partially awarding the 182- and 364-day T-bills,” BTR said. “The auction was 1.6 times oversubscribed, attracting P24 billion in total tenders.”

The 91-day security fetched an average rate of 4.464 percent. The total tenders received by the BTR for these Tbills reached P13.7 billion.

With the full award of P5 billion, the auction committee rejected P8.7 billion of the tenders.

In terms of the 182-day Tbills, BTR data showed it fetched an average annual interest rate of 4.838 percent.

The government received tenders worth P7.147 billion but only accepted P2.2 billion. This effectively rejected P4.947 billion of the tenders.

For the 364-day T-bills, these received an average annual interest rate of 5.1 percent. The government received P3.2 billion worth of tenders for these notes.

However, the auction committee only accepted P1.4 billion of these tenders, effectively rejecting P1.8 billion worth of offers.

Last week, the national government borrowed P6.7 billion through the sale of T-bills, less than half of the P15 billion that the BTR intended to raise.

Monday’s tender marked the third consecutive month that the Treasury was unable to fully award their intended T-bill sale.

The Treasury has been rejecting offers as investors continue to demand for rates higher than the benchmark—at some point have become “untenable” for the national government.