Outstanding gov’t-issued IOUs hit P3.82T in ’14

By Ben O. de Vera

THE GOVERNMENT ended 2014 with P3.82 trillion in outstanding debt paper sold to investors here and overseas, the latest Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) data showed.

The end-December figure was slightly up from end-November’s P3.789 trillion.

As of last year, the bulk of outstanding IOUs were long-tenor treasury bonds, which have a total face amount of P3.538 trillion.

The remaining P281.7 billion came from the auction of treasury bills.

Of the outstanding T-bonds, three-year debt paper amounted P146.5 billion; four-year IOUs, P8.782 billion; five-year bonds, P177 billion, and seven-year bonds, P486 billion.

For 10-year T-bonds, the outstanding amount stood at P419.2 billion; P5.697 billion for 10-year AR bonds; P311.1 billion for 20-year IOUs, and P250.3 billion for 25-year debt paper.

Of the $6.582-million Philippine Par Bond redenominated to 28.5- year IOU, P97.1 million was outstanding as of end-2014.

Also among the outstanding long-tenor debt paper were retail treasury bonds worth P804.9 billion; benchmark bonds worth P850 billion; P50-billion worth of 25-year CB-BoL T-bonds; P6-billion US dollar RTB; P291.6-million euro RTB; and P22.4 billion in onshore dollar T-bond.

As for the outstanding short-term treasury bills, some P89 billion was in the form of 91-day debt paper.

The outstanding 182-day T-bills as of end-2014, meanwhile, reached P90 billion.

For 364-day IOUs, the outstanding amount hit P102.7 billion as of the end of 2014.

In the first quarter of 2015, the BTr will auction off P135 billion worth of treasury bills and bonds to local investors.

Early this month, the Philippine government successfully sold $2 billion in 25-year Republic of the Philippines or ROP bonds to foreign investors at a record-low coupon of 3.95 percent. Three-fourths of the proceeds of this offshore bond issuance or $1.5 billion were used to switch and retire old IOUs maturing between 2016 and 2034.