Benchmark interest rates increased across the board at Monday's auction amid recent cautious signals from the US Federal Reserve, reducing the odds of a rate cut.
The Bureau of the Treasury accepted the programmed P15 billion worth of bids. Investors were willing to buy more, as tenders reached P38.295 billion.
The rate for the 91-day Treasury bill rose to 5.719 percent on May 27 from 5.712 percent during the last week’s auction. Investors were willing to buy as much as P15.25 billion of the debt papers, more than two-times the P5 billion on offer.
The Treasury sold all the P5 billion worth of IOUs on sale.
The rates for the 182-day T-bill also increased to 5.886 percent from 5.864 percent previously. Total tenders amounted to P11.16 billion, around two times larger than the P5 billion on offer.
Moreover, the 364-day T-bill rate grew from 6.007 percent to 6.043 percent. The government accepted all P5 billion on offer as demand reached P11.885 billion.
Before Monday's auction, the PHP Bloomberg Valuation Reference Rates showed that the 91-day, 182-day, and 364-day T-bills stood at 5.78 percent, 5.94 percent, and 6.032 percent, respectively, in the secondary market.
Yields corrected higher after the U.S. dollar and peso exchange rate depreciated to P58.27, lowest since November 2022, which could lead to some increase in the prices of imported products such as oil, among many others, and could lead to some pick up in overall inflation, said Michael L. Ricafort, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist.