Interest rates for the liquidity mop-up tool of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas continued their steady rise—an uptrend that started in mid-February—as bankers tried to anticipate a possible monetary policy-tightening move next week.
During Wednesday’s weekly term-deposit facility auction, banks tendered P97.4 billion worth of bids for the P90 billion that authorities offered. The central bank eventually accepted P86.7 billion worth of bids, with the yields rising across the board.
“Banks are factoring in a broad uptick in rates, plus what looks like a rate hike when the Monetary Board meets (on May 10),” a bank treasurer said in a telephone interview. “That’s why bids were most aggressive on the shorter end.”
Indeed, banks tendered P50.1 billion worth of bids for the 7-day term-deposit facility, with the central bank accepting P40 billion for a full award. The average yield rose to 3.4434 percent from 3.4397 percent in the previous week.
BUSINESS
BUSINESS
BUSINESS
The term-deposit facility is a scheme where authorities entice banks to “sterilize” idle cash by lodging them with the central bank for a short period of time, thus preventing the funds from circulating in the economy and potentially further aggravating inflation.
The inflation rate stands at a three-year high of 4.6 percent as of March and central bank economists warned that this could have risen further to as high as 4.7 percent in April due to rising international crude oil prices that add to the effects of domestic tax increases.
