With ample cash due to government underspending at the start of the year, debt paper sold by the Bureau of the Treasury went down to P5.24 trillion at end-July.
The total outstanding Treasury bills and bonds as of last month declined from P5.29 trillion in June, the latest Treasury data showed.
Outstanding T-bills went down P608 billion from P652.3 billion a month ago.
Outstanding Treasury bonds, meanwhile, inched up to P4.642 trillion in July from P4.641 trillion in the previous month.
To recall, the government had programmed to borrow a smaller volume of Treasury bills and bonds totaling P230 billion from local investors between July and September. This, due to the underspending of P1 billion a day on public goods and services in the first four months amid late approval of the 2019 national budget.
The third-quarter domestic borrowing program—P90 billion in Treasury bills and P140 billion in treasury bonds—was lower than the P315 billion for the second quarter, which saw oversubscribed auctions as rates declined on easing inflation.
President Duterte signed this year’s P3.7-trillion budget only on April 15 or over four months late as the two houses of Congress squabbled over alleged “pork” insertions.
Among the outstanding Treasury bills, P105 billion were from the auction of the benchmark 91-day IOUs; P170.3 billion from 182-day debt paper; and P332.7 billion from 364-day T-bills.
As for the outstanding T-bonds, three-year IOUs have a face amount of P114.9 billion; five-year debt paper, P261.5 billion; seven-year Treasury bonds, P608.9 billion; and 10-year T-bonds, P467.3 billion.
The outstanding amount for 10-year agrarian reform bonds was P8.7 billion; 20-year IOUs, P388.1 billion; and 25-year debt paper, P235.9 billion.
Of the $6.582-million Philippine Par Bond redenominated into 28.5 years, outstanding amount totaled P97.1 million.
Outstanding retail Treasury bonds reached P1.6 trillion; P909.3-billion benchmark bonds; P50 billion in 25-year CB-BoL T-bonds; and P25.4-billion onshore dollar T-bonds.