July borrowing starts on low note: NG raises only ₧9.2B

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) was forced to settle with partial awards across the three tenors of Treasury bills (T-bills) as rates went beyond current secondary market benchmark levels and were also higher than the last tender.

“Rates for the 91-, 182-, and 364day T-bills were capped at 6.15 per- cent, 6.266 percent and 6.286 percent, respectively,” the Treasury said in a statement on Monday.

Secondary benchmark rates for the same debt papers were at 6.111 percent (91-day), 6.182 percent (182day) and 6.218 percent (364-day).

The average rates on Monday’s auction were also higher than their previous week’s levels: 6.086 percent for 91-day, 6.144 percent for 182-day and 6.219 percent for 364-day.

The Treasury awarded P2.954 billion in 91-day T-bills, P2.67 billion in 182-day T-bills, and P3.595 billion in 364-day T-bills.

“The auction was 1.2 times oversubscribed, attracting P17.4 billion in total tenders,” the Treasury said.

Treasury data showed that only the 182-day T-bills was undersubscribed at P4.63 billion while tenders for the 91-day and 364-day T-bills reached P6.584 billion and P6.205 billion, respectively.

The rates for the 91-day T-bills ranged from 6.044 percent to 6.198 percent while the 182-day T-bills fetch yields from a low of 6.11 percent to a high of 6.293 percent. The investors’ asking rates for the 364day T-bills were between 6.18 percent and 6.375 percent.

This is now the sixth consecutive T-bills auction that saw investors’ asking rates increasing on a weekon-week basis.

For this month, the national government plans to borrow P180 billion from the domestic market next month from the auction of T-bills and T-bonds.

Broken down, the Treasury said it plans to raise P60 billion from Tbills across four auctions and P120 billion from Treasury bonds across four auctions as well.

The national government was unable to borrow from the domestic market its intended amount of P185 billion for June, as rising interest rates hounded much of the state’s auction for short-term debt papers.

(Related story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2023/06/28/ ng-borrowing-goal-for-junemissed/)