Rates of Treasury bills, bonds may be mixed before CPI, BSP

RATES of the Treasury bills (T-bills) and Treasury bonds (T-bonds) on offer this week could be mixed, tracking secondary market movements, before the release of September inflation data and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) policy meeting.

-  Aaron Michael C. Sy

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) will auction off P22 billion in T-bills on Monday, or P7.5 billion each in 91-day and 182-day securities and P7 billion in 364-day papers.

On Tuesday, the government will offer P35 billion in a dual-tenor T-bond offering, or P15 billion in reissued seven-year papers with a remaining life of two years and six months, and P20 billion in reissued 10-year debt with a remaining life of nine years and six months.

T-bill and bond yields could track the mixed week-on-week movements seen at the secondary market as the market looks ahead to the release of the September consumer price index (CPI) report on Tuesday (Oct. 7) and the Monetary Board's policy meeting on Thursday (Oct. 9), Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message.

A trader said in an email that the reissued seven-year bonds could be quoted at rates from 5.625% to 5.65% on Tuesday, while the reissued 10-year debt could fetch bids carrying yields from 5.975% to 6%.

The trader added that the bond auction could see “decent demand.”