Gov’t borrows less than planned

The national government borrowed less than programmed at lower interest rates.

At Monday's auction of Treasury bills, Oct. 24, the national government awarded only P6.65 billion, equivalent to only 44.36 percent of the national government’s P15 billion program for the week.

The bellwether 91-day rate, which banks use in pricing their loans, dropped to 4.220 percent from 4.820 percent previously.

The Treasury sold the P2.505 billion worth of three-month debt papers on offer, below the P5 billion on offer. Investors however were asking for P8.3 billion more of the government security or IOU.

Meanwhile, the yield for the 182-day T-bill went down to 4.650 percent from 5.226 percent last week.

Investors were willing to buy as much as P7.466 billion of the six-month T-bills, but the government only accepted P2.1 billion worth of bids, lower than the planned P5 billion.

The yield for the 364-day T-bill also slid to 4.875 percent from 5.862 percent.

Treasury accepted P2.049 billion worth of bids below the P5 billion target. Investors, however, were willing to buy more, as tenders reached P5.094 billion.