Outstanding IOUs of gov’t up to P4.46T in Q1

The total amount of outstanding government-issued IOUs inched up to P4.46 trillion as of March following a “panda” bond sale that month.

The combined value of outstanding treasury bills and bonds at the end of the first quarter rose from P4.42 billion in February, the latest Bureau of the Treasury data showed.

As of end-March, the total outstanding treasury bonds hit P4.132 trillion from P4.112 trillion a month ago.

Outstanding treasury bills also went up to P332.4 billion from P316.8 billion as of end February.

Of the outstanding T-bills, P107.2 billion was from the sale of 91-day IOUs; P98.9 billion from 182-day debt paper, and P126.3 billion from 364-day bills.
Among the outstanding T-bonds, three-year IOUs have a face amount of P59.9 billion; five-year debt paper, P327.3 billion; seven-year treasury bonds, P596.7 billion; and 10-year T-bonds, P377.4 billion.

As for 10-year agrarian reform bonds, the outstanding amount was P7.6 billion; 20-year IOUs, P328.2 billion; and 25-year debt paper, P235.9 billion.

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

Outstanding retail treasury bonds amounted P1.2 trillion.

Also outstanding were P909.3 billion in benchmark bonds; P50-billion 25-year CB-BoL T-bonds, and P26.1 billion in onshore dollar T-bond.

To recall, the Philippine government last month sold 1.46 billion renminbi or about P12 billion in three-year panda bonds in China at a yield of 5 percent.

In January, the Philippines also sold a total of $2 billion in 10-year dollar-denominated global bonds at a coupon rate of 3 percent.

The government also wanted to sell between $500 million and $700 million in yen-denominated samurai bonds in Japan before yearend.

Also, the Treasury announced in March that it had programmed to sell P325 billion in government securities during the second quarter, a larger volume than the first-quarter borrowing program of P240 billion.

The Treasury has been raising its domestic borrowing program during the past few quarters not only to fund the growing national budget but also finance the Duterte administration’s ambitious “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program. —BEN O. DE VERA