The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) has fully awarded bids for the treasury bills auctioned yesterday, while its top official also announced that plans for Panda and Samurai bond issuances this year will no longer push through.
The tenders for the 91-day, 182-day and 364-day IOUs reached P79.9 billion, almost four times the P20 billion offering.
All tenors fetched rates that were lower than the previous auction levels.
“Full award for all tenor buckets with strong bid to cover subscriptions,” Rosalia de Leon, national treasurer, told reporters via Viber after the auction yesterday.
“Monetary stance remains accommodative and inflation outlook continues to be benign,” she added.
As the government has been able to regularly tap the domestic market for its funding requirements amid healthy demand and low rates, de Leon said plans to issue renminbi- and yen-denominated bonds have been shelved.
“No more,” de Leon said, when asked about having Panda and Samurai bond issuances this year.
The BTr was eyeing to issue Panda bonds in March, but this was set aside due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.
Last year, the government raised 2.5 billion renminbi from Panda bonds, and 92 billion yen from multi-tranche Samurai bonds.
“We got BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) advance of P540 billion (and) we have premyo bonds 2,” de Leon said.
The BSP, last October 1, approved the request of the national government for “fresh provisional advances” worth P540 billion.
Benjamin Diokno, BSP governor, then said the short-term loan will be used for “deficit financing as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.”
Diokno said the national government will settle the P540 billion “on or before December 29, 2020 at zero interest.”
At the onset of the lockdown measures imposed last March to combat the COVID-19, the BSP also lent P300 billion to the national government under a repurchase agreement “with a maximum repayment period of six months.”
Diokno said the BTr has fully settled the amount on September 29.
Meanwhile, the government earlier said it is eyeing to offer another round of premyo bonds in November, after the successful sale of its initial premyo bonds issuance.
Premyo bonds are interest-bearing securities offered by the government that have corresponding raffle numbers for a chance to win prizes.
