The government raised P20 billion from the first auction of Treasury bills under the Duterte administration, as investors offered lower interest rates Monday.
The Bureau of Treasury said it sold P8 billion worth of 91-day debt instruments, P6 billion worth of 182-day papers and another P6 billion worth of 364-day bills.
Deputy treasurer Erwin Sta. Ana said the healthy auction performance reflected investors confidence in the Duterte administration.
The auction was oversubscribed across all tenors with total tenders of P47.09 billion, exceeding the government offering of P20 billion.
Interest rate on the 91-day or three-month debt facilities settled at 1.447 percent, or 14.1 basis points lower than the previous rate of 1.588 percent. Tenders for the three-month debt papers reached P15.86 billion, nearly double the P8-billion offering.
The yield on 182-day bills also decreased 17.5 basis points to 1.442 percent from the previous auction average of 1.617 percent as tenders for the six-month debt facility hit P18.34 billion, or more than thrice the P6-billion original offer.
Interest rate on the 364-day eased 29.5 basis points to 1.63 percent from the previous average of 1.925 percent. Tenders for the one-year debt facility was more than double the P6-billion original offer at P12.89 billion.
“The auction, which is the maiden issuance under the Duterte administration, attracted considerable demand being more than twice oversubscribed,” the Treasury said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the government spent P220.61 billion to settle debt obligations in the first four months, down by 15.34 percent from P260.59 billion a year ago.
Data from the Treasury showed debt interest payments inched up 0.9 percent in January to April this year to P117.388 billion from P116.291 billion recorded in the same period last year.
Interest payments to local creditors declined to P73.37 billion, while interest payments to foreign creditors rose to P44.01 billion.
Payments for debt amortization dropped 28.5 percent in the four-month period to P103.22 billion from P144.30 billion recorded a year earlier.
