Outstanding gov’t-issued IOUs hit new high of P7.2T in March

Strong sales of affordable retail treasury bonds (RTBs) which were issued last month jacked up the outstanding value of locally issued IOUs to a new high of P7.2 trillion in end-March.

The latest Bureau of the Treasury data on Wednesday showed that the total face amount of outstanding treasury bills and bonds further rose from P6.82 trillion in February.

Outstanding T-bills amounted to P1.05 trillion, while bonds reached P6.15 trillion.

RTBs climbed to P2.59 trillion after the Treasury last March 9 settled P463.3 billion in three-year debt paper at a coupon rate of 2.375 percent.

The government’s 25th overall and the Duterte administration’s eighth RTB sale raised P411.8 billion in new money, while P51.5 billion worth were swapped by investors with bond holdings that would fall due this year.

Also outstanding as of March were P252.5 billion in three-year treasury bonds; P316.8 billion five-year bonds; P458.1 billion in seven-year bonds and P757.7 billion in 10-year bonds.

The outstanding amount for 10-year agrarian reform bonds was P7.9 billion; P420.3 billion in 20-year; and P235.9 billion in 25-year.For the $6.582-million Philippine Par Bond redenominated into 28.5 years, the outstanding amount was P97.1 million.

The others were the P1.03 trillion in benchmark bonds; P50 billion in 25-year Central Bank-Board of Liquidators T-bonds; P24.3 billion in onshore dollar T-bond and P6.6 billion in one-year “Premyo” bonds.

As for short-dated T-bills, outstanding benchmark 91-day amounted to P140 billion; P201.9 billion in 182-day and P707.4 billion in 364-day.

The government will borrow a total of P2.58 trillion onshore out of the P3.03-trillion programmed borrowings for 2021 to take advantage of flushing liquidity in the domestic financial system while tempering foreign exchange risks.