BTr set to issue P135B in debt paper in H1 2015

MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) will issue P135 billion worth of debt paper in the first half of 2015, in line with the government’s plan to further increase the share of domestic borrowings.

On its website, the BTr announced that it would offer P20 billion worth of short-term Treasury bills in the months of January, February and March next year.

For each of the monthly offerings, the 91-day debt paper to be sold will amount to P8 billion.

The 182-day and 364-day IOUs, meanwhile, will be worth P6 billion each.

The auction of the T-bills was set for Jan. 5, Feb. 2 and March 2.

As for the Treasury bonds, which have longer tenors, the BTr will first auction to investors P25 billion worth of 20-year debt paper on Jan. 20.

On Feb. 17, P25 billion in 10-year IOUs will be sold.

Another P25 billion in seven-year T-Bonds will be auctioned on March 17.

National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon earlier said the borrowing mix for 2015 would be 86 percent domestic and 14 percent external, as the “mountains of cash” held by the BTr would be enough as buffer to sustain expenditures.

The share of domestic borrowing this year is 83 percent, as the inter-agency Development Budget Coordination Committee last September increased to 17 percent the share of foreign financing from 13 percent previously.

The government had to borrow more from multilateral lenders to sustain the rehabilitation efforts in areas devastated by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” last year.

The initial foray into foreign borrowing next year is expected to be the issuance of about $1 billion worth of Republic of the Philippines (ROP) bonds in the first quarter.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has already given its go-ahead for the offshore ROP issuance, whose joint global coordinators will be Deutsche Bank and HSBC, according to an International Financing Review report.