Latest News

T-bill rates slip ahead of Fed meeting

National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon has attributed the decline across-the-board in the rates of Treasury bills (T-bills) on Monday partly to anticipations ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting this week.

The average rate of the 91-day paper slipped to 0.693 percent, the 182-day to 1.077 percent; and the 364-day to 1.410 percent.

These were at 0.875 percent for the three-month paper, 1.097 percent for the six-month paper, and 1.415 percent for the one-year paper during the auction last January 17.

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) offered all tenors for PHP5 billion and most were more than five times oversubscribed. The auction committee made full awards for all tenors.

Tenders for the three-month paper reached PHP27.976 billion while it amounted to PHP27.857 for the six-month paper and PHP20.532 billion for the one-year paper.

“(Investors are) waiting for (a) signal from Fed for rate liftoff, (and) strong bias for short term tenors was seen in the auction with sharp reduction on rates,” de Leon said.

She said the meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on January 25 to 26 “will provide guidance especially (during Fed Chairman Jerome) Powell(‘s) press conference after (the) meeting.”

Source: Philippines News Agency