 |
 |
|
|
       |
91-day T-bill yield down 29 basis points |
|
(January 06, 2004 - Philippine Daily Inquirer)
by Clarissa S. Batino THE GOVERNMENT'S cost of local borrowing eased Monday at the first Treasury bill auction of the year, as the benchmark rate on 91-day bills dropped by 28.6 basis points to 6.246 percent in view of big demand from banks. |
|
The 182-day bill rate also fell by 14.5 basis points to 7.441 percent but the rate on 364-day bills went up by 19.26 basis points.
The government raised three billion pesos from the sale of 91-day Treasury bills Monday, 3.5 billion from 182-day bills, and 4.5 billion from 364-day bills. Tenders reached 13.62 billion pesos. "This is a very good start for us. It will allow the government to maintain a healthy of cash position," National Treasurer Sergio Edeza said. "Clearly, the market has accumulated liquidity last month when there was no auction and it needed to reinvest the cash it has." The government's cash position stood at 44 billion pesos at the end of 2003. Edeza said the Treasury had accepted higher bids for the 364-day bills as the secondary market rate for similar debt paper was already fetching about 8.3 percent. He added that the increased volume for the one-year debt notes naturally encouraged the market to seek higher returns for placements. Edeza said domestic interest rates would likely remain stable in the next two weeks, as banks were attracting more deposits and therefore would need investment outlets. Absence of private sector borrowers will force banks to continue placing their excess liquidity in risk-free government securities. The government had projected that the 91-day bill rate would average between 7.5 and 8.5 percent this year. However, Edeza said he believed the benchmark rate would average at about 7.0 percent, if not lower, despite prevailing political jitters. Edeza said the government would continue to issue other forms of debt paper, including retail bonds that are sold to small investors, this year. "We usually sell the RTBs (Retail Treasury Bonds) in the second half," he said. "We will still do that this year." The government sold 74.3 billion pesos' worth of three-and five-year RTBs in July and another 31 billion pesos' worth of three-year RTBs in November. The Treasury had shelved the December auctions of Treasury bills after selling the retail bonds. The Treasury plans to sell in the first quarter of the year 11 billion pesos' worth of bills every other week and 4.5 billion pesos' worth of Treasury bonds weekly. home | latest news |
 |
Circular Letters/Memoranda |
|
Speeches/ Presentations |
|
Photo Gallery |
|
The 2008 RBAP Charter Symposium |
|
2008 CFI Awards |
|
Rural Banking Week Celebration Golf Tournament |
|
Client Satisfaction Survey for Licensing Management System of the Supervision and Examination Sector |
|
Financial Reporting Package 2008 |
|
BSP releases regulations on liquidity, market risk weighting |
