NG raises P15B from auction of 3-tranche Treasuries

THE national government was successful anew in raising a total of P15 billion from the auction of three-tranche Treasury Bills (T-bills) last Monday as investors’ asking rates continue to fall below secondary market benchmark levels.

The Bureau of the Treasury’s (BTR) auction committee fully awarded the P15-billion 91-day, 182-day and 364day T-bills.

This is the second consecutive week that the Treasury fully-awarded its T-bills auction as investors’ asking interest rates continue to fall.

The auction on Monday was 4.1 times oversubscribed across all tranches with total bids amounting to P62.013 billion.

The 91-day T-bills fetched an average interest rate of 4.211 percent, lower than the 4.312 percent secondary market benchmark level.

The 182-day T-bills and 364-day bills recorded an average interest rate of 4.912 percent and 5.428 percent respectively. The interest rates for the government securities were lower than their secondary market benchmark rate that hit 4.998 percent (182-day T-bill) and 5.453 percent (364-day T-bill).

Last week, the Treasury marked its first full-award of T-bills auction since the middle of August 2022.

The Treasury struggled to raise money from the local debt market in the previous quarter as investors sought for higher interest rates last year.

At the start of the year, National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon expressed optimism that the Btr’s auctions would continue to see near full-awarding of T-bills.

The national government seeks to raise a total of P200 billion from the sale of T-bills and Treasury bonds this month.

For the whole year, the national government plans to borrow P2.207 trillion with a 75:25 mix in favor of domestic sources. In terms of domestic borrowings, the national government aims to raise a total of P1.654 trillion, P54.1 billion of which coming from the sale of T-bills.