Outstanding IOUs’ value inched up to P5.5 trillion in March

Even as investors’ appetite for government securities weakened in mid-March as they held on to cash at the start of the enhanced community quarantine, the amount of debt papers sold by the Bureau of the Treasury further climbed to P5.5 trillion that month.

The latest Treasury data showed that the value of outstanding treasury bills and bonds issued by the national government increased from P5.4 trillion last February.

Outstanding treasury bills rose to P556.6 billion last month from P533.5 billion in February, while treasury bonds amounted P4.96 trillion, up from P4.92 trillion a month ago.

The Treasury’s auctions were met with strong demand in early March, but this reversed quickly as bid rates increased amid economic uncertainty when the government locked down the entire island of Luzon and local governments elsewhere followed suit to stop COVID-19 transmission.

Of the T-bills, P125.5 billion were from the auction of the benchmark 91-day IOUs; P150.5 billion from 182-day debt paper; and P280.7 billion from 364-day treasury bills.

On T-bonds, three-year IOUs had a face amount of P153.5 billion; five-year debt paper, P331.5 billion; seven-year treasury bonds, P460.7 billion and 10-year securities, P533.3 billion.

The outstanding amount for 10-year agrarian reform bonds was P8.6 billion; 20-year IOUs, P420.3 billion and 25-year debt paper, P235.9 billion.

For the $6.582-million Philippine Par Bond, which was reassigned a maturity period of 28.5 years, the outstanding amount was P97.1 million.

Also outstanding were P1.8 trillion in retail treasury bonds (RTBs); P909.3-billion benchmark bonds; P50 billion in 25-year CB-BoL T-bonds; P25.4-billion onshore dollar T-bond; and P4.9 billion in “premyo” bonds.

Edited by TSB