Investors buy P7.5B worth of govt debt papers

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of the Treasury made full award of P7.5 billion worth of Treasury bills at an auction on Monday, April 30, as the government debt papers fetched lower rates.

National Treasurer Roberto Tan said there was no reason to reject the bids for the 91-, 182- and 365-day T-bills on Monday because they were reasonable and in line with the yields in the secondary market.

He said this meant investors were willing to park their funds in government securities.

T-bills are short-term borrowing instruments that mature between 3 months to one year. They are sold at a discount and redeemed at face value. For example, an investor buys a T-bill for P980,000 and the government pays him P1 million upon maturity. The difference of P20,000 represents the interest earned by the security, which is equivalent to 2%.

Below was how the debt papers performed:

• 91-day T-bill: fetched an average rate of 2.174%, down from previous rate of 2.494%. Investors tendered P5.620 billion for the paper, more than the programmed government debt sale of P2 billion.
• 182-day T-bill: fetched an average rate of 2.258%, down from previous rate of 2.4%. Investors tendered P6.54 billion for the paper, more than thrice the programmed government offer of P2 billion.
• 365-day T-bill: fetched an average rate of 2.584%, lower than the previous 2.6%. Total tenders reached P6.7 billion, almost double the P3.5 billion offered by the Treasury to investors.

The auction followed the release of data on the first-quarter budget deficit, which amounted to P33.909 billion, way below the P82.808 billion ceiling set by government. – Rappler.com