T-bills rise on expectations BSP won’t change key rates

MANILA – The rates of three and six-month Treasury bills (T-bills) rose Monday partly on expectations of unchanged Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) key rates during the meeting of the Monetary Board (MB) this week.

The average rate of the 91-day paper rose to 1.022 percent and the 182-day paper to 1.400 percent but the rate of the 364-day paper slipped to 1.686 percent.

These were at 1.015 percent, 1.399 percent, and 1.695 percent during the auction last Dec. 7.

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) fully awarded all tenors at PHP5 billion each for the three- and six-month securities, and PHP10 billion for the one-year.

Bids for the 91-day paper amounted to PHP16.218 billion while it was PHP14.84 billion for the 182-day and PHP44.943 billion for the 364-day.

In a Viber message to journalists, National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said they did not open the tap facility during the day despite the oversubscription.

“(There was) minimal movement in rates as (the) market sees MB on a stay mood for Thursday’s policy meeting,” she said, referring to the last rate setting meet of the central bank’s policy-making board for the year.

To date, the MB has slashed the central bank’s key policy rates by a total of 200 basis points to help buoy the domestic economy, which has been in recession since the first quarter of this year due to the pandemic.

“Liquidity (is) bountiful with more than adequate bid cover across tenors,” de Leon added.