The government successfully sold its targeted amount of Treasury bills on Monday due to strong demand from market players anticipating possible central bank policy cuts by August.

According to the Bureau of the Treasury, the programmed P20 billion was fully awarded as demands totaled P47.372 billion, more than twice the offer.

The Treasury made a full P6.5-billion award of the 90-day Treasury bills (T-bills) as tenders for the tenor reached P14.860 billion.

The three-month paper was quoted at an average rate of 5.743 percent, higher than the 5.717 percent in the previous auction last week.

The government also raised the programmed P6.5 billion for the 181-day short-term loans. Tenders for the security amounted to P15.010 billion.

The average rate of the six-month T-bills also increased to 5.991 percent, higher than the previous auction’s 5.978 percent.

Likewise, the average rate for 364-day T-bills increased to 6.081 percent from 6.072 percent in the last auction. Tenders submitted for the debt paper stood at P17.502 billion, roughly more than three times the P7-billion offer that was fully awarded.

At the second market, meanwhile, the average rates for the 91-, 181-, and 364-day T-bills stood at 5.736 percent, 6.022 percent, and 6.105 percent, based on the Bloomberg Valuation Service Reference Rate.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael Ricafort said higher yields came amid more signals of cutting policy rates from the US Federal Reserve and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

The government wants to raise P260 billion from T-bills and P370 billion via Treasury bonds in the third quarter. The Treasury will auction off more T-bonds with shorter tenors in the second quarter.

In July, the Treasury plans to borrow a total of P215 billion, of which P100 billion is from T-bills and P115 billion from T-bonds.