Outstanding gov’t IOUs inch up to P3.854T

MANILA, Philippines–The outstanding debt paper issued by the government to local and foreign investors inched up to P3.854 trillion as of end-March, the latest documents on the Treasury website showed.

The total face amount of the outstanding IOUs at the end of the first quarter was slightly higher than end-February’s P3.827 trillion.

The bulk of the outstanding debt as of the end of March was treasury bonds, which amount to P3.576 trillion, while treasury bills accounted for the balance of P278.2 billion.

Of the outstanding T-bonds, three-year debt paper amounted P146.5 billion; four-year IOUs, P8.782 billion; five-year bonds, P177 billion; seven-year bonds, P511 billion; and 10-year bonds, P406.8 billion.

For 10-year AR bonds, the outstanding amount was P5.718 billion; P336.1 billion for 20-year debt paper; and P250.3 billion for 25-year IOUs.

Of the $6.582-million Philippine Par Bond redenominated into 28.5 years, P97.1 million remains outstanding.

Also outstanding were retail treasury bonds worth P804.9 billion; benchmark bonds worth P850 billion; P50 billion in 25-year CB-BoL T-bonds; P6.019 billion in US dollar RTB; P259.7 million in euro RTB; and P22.4 billion in onshore dollar T-bond.

As for the outstanding treasury bills, P81 billion came from the auction of 91-day T-bills; P90 billion from 182-day IOUs; and P107.2 billion from 364-day debt paper.

Last January, the government borrowed offshore through the sale of $2 billion worth of 25-year Republic of the Philippines or ROP bonds at a record-low coupon of 3.95 percent. Of the proceeds of this global bond issuance, the larger chunk of $1.5 billion was used to swap and retire old debt paper previously issued at higher rates and maturing between next year and 2034, while $500 million will form part of the budget.

The Bureau of the Treasury had scheduled to auction off P135 billion worth of treasury bills and bonds locally in the second quarter, similar to the first quarter borrowing program.

Since investors’ bid rates rose across the board during the first T-bills auction for the second quarter held early this month, the BTr accepted only about a third of the tenders for the six-month and one-year debt paper.

Last Tuesday, the BTr rejected all bids for P25 billion in re-issued 10-year T-bonds, as the bid rates offered by investors were higher than that in the secondary market.