Benchmark interest rates declined across the board at Monday's auction as inflation began showing signs of cooling down and investors await the policy tightening by the US Federal Reserve.
The rate for the 91-day Treasury bill, which banks use in pricing their loans, dropped to 0.875 percent on Jan. 17 from 0.969 percent during the last week’s auction. Investors were willing to buy as much as P27.499 billion of the debt papers, more than five-times the P5 billion on offer.
The Bureau of the Treasury sold all the P5 billion worth of IOUs on sale.
The rates for the 182-day T-bill also fell to 1.097 percent from 1.121 percent previously. Total tenders amounted to P26.376 billion, around five times larger than the P5 billion on offer.
Moreover, the 364-day T-bill rate went down from 1.468 percent to 1.415 percent. The government accepted all P5 billion on offer despite demand reaching P23.8 billion.
“Interest rates declined with inflation slowing and heavy bias on short tenors as US Fed ready to start rate liftoff,” National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon said told reporters after the auction.