Government raises P970 M via short term bills

The National Government awarded yesterday a total of P970-million worth of short-term cash management bills (CMBs) out of total offering volume of P3 billion.

The auction resulted in an average rate of 16.175 percent for the 43-day CMBs while the 71-day tenor fetched an average yield of 16.779 percent.

The government was also able to raise another P8 billion from an over-the- counter (OTC) facility at the same rates.

Deputy Treasurer Eduardo Mendiola said the OTC facility is available only to government owned or controlled corporations, provident funds, local government units and government financial institutions.

Mendiola said the government has set for next week an offering volume of P5 billion for the CMB auction. Two tenors will be offered at an offering volume of P2.5 billion for each maturity.

At the same time, Mendiola announced, the offering volume for the weekly Treasury bill auction will be reduced from the current P4 billion to just P2 billion.

The offering volume for the 91-day T-bill will be maintained at P1 billion while that for the 182-day and 364-day T-bills will be reduced to P500 million each.

The bias, Mendiola admitted, is toward short-term borrowings.

To date, the government was able to raise about P25 billion from the CMBs. – Marianne Go