Gov’t sells P7.5B worth of Treasury bills at auction

The government sold P7.5 billion worth of 91-, 182- and 364-day Treasury bills at auction Monday as yields fell to record lows. Nearly P22 billion were tendered in total for the T-bills, with tenders for the 91-day T-bill (0.150-percent yield, down from 0.463 percent) reaching P4.330 billion, more than four times the P1 billion offered by the government; bids for the 182-day T-bill (0.450-percent yield, down from 0.70 percent) hitting P8.810 billion, more than three times the P2.5 billion programmed by the government; and tenders for the 364-day T-bill (0.680-percent yield from 0.950 percent previously) amounting to P8.770 billion, more than double the P4 billion offered by the Treasury. Deputy Treasurer Eduardo Mendiola pointed to the number of bids as evidence of high liquidity in the market. "The amount of tenders show that there are a lot of extra [funds]," Mendiola told reporters after the auction. "Inflation was good and it seems that all macro variables were positive. There was no reason at all to bid [the rates] up," he added. Inflation slowed to 3.1 percent in October, down from 3.6 percent in September, according to the National Statistics Office. — BM, GMA News