Expectations for a slower inflation rate for December 2021 resulted in the drop of Philippine treasury bill (T-bill) rates on Monday.
The average rate of the 91-day paper slipped to 1.075 percent, the 182-day’s to 1.269 percent, and the 365-day’s to 1.600 percent.
These were at 1.125 percent, 1.428 percent, and 1.649 percent for the three-month, six-month, and one-year debt papers, respectively, during the previous auction on Dec. 13, 2021.
Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) offered each tenor for PHP5 billion and the auction committee made a full award across the board.
Total bids for the 91-day paper reached PHP24.144 billion while it amounted to PHP24.32 billion for the 182-day and PHP22.589 billion for the one-year paper.
“(The auction committee) made full award on all tenors with rates dropping with inflation for December expected at 3.9 percent primarily on the implementation of oil price rollbacks,” National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon told journalists in a Viber message Monday.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is scheduled to report the December 2021 inflation rate on January 5.
The rate of price increases decelerated to 4.2 percent last November from month ago’s 4.6 percent, bringing the 11-month average to 4.5 percent, which remains higher than the government’s 2-4 percent target band.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) forecasts the December 2021 inflation rate to stay between 3.5-4.3 percent.
Source: Philippines News Agency
