Gov’t borrowing P180B via debt notes sale in Q2

The government will borrow P180 billion domestically through the sale of treasury bills and bonds in the second quarter. This is about the same as the volume programmed for the first three months of the year.

In a March 22 memorandum to eligible government securities dealers, National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon said the Bureau of the Treasury would offer P90 billion each in T-bills and T-bonds between April and June.

For treasury bills, a total of P15 billion—P6 billion in 91-day, P5 billion in 182-day and P4 billion in 364-day notes—will be auctioned off on the following dates: April 10 and 24, May 8 and 22, and June 5 and 19.

As for treasury bonds, the Treasury will sell P15 billion in seven-year debt paper on April 18 and May 30.

The Treasury will also auction off P15 billion in 10-year IOUs on May 2 and June 13.

Also, P15 billion in 20-year government securities will be offered on May 16 and June 27.

As domestic interest rates remain relatively low, the Duterte administration wanted to finance its programmed budget deficit equivalent to 3 percent of the gross domestic product in the next six years through a borrowing mix of 80-percent local and 20-percent foreign.

Gross borrowings for 2017 had been programmed to reach P631.3 billion, higher than the P453.1 billion in 2016.

For this year, the government plans to borrow P126.3 billion from foreign sources, including multilateral lenders, while the bigger P505 billion in borrowings will come from local sources.

De Leon said the government was “in the right trajectory in terms of meeting the (2017 borrowing) mix.”