Govt-issued debt paper hit P4.16T in April

Total outstanding government-issued IOUs jumped to P4.16 trillion as of the end of the first four months of the year mainly due to the successful issuance of retail treasury bonds (RTBs) in April.

The latest Bureau of the Treasury data showed that the combined value of outstanding treasury bills and bonds issued as of April rose from about P3.97 trillion in March.

As of end-April, treasury bonds accounted for the bulk of the outstanding debt paper, amounting to P3.86 trillion, up from P3.68 trillion a month ago.

Outstanding treasury bills hit P299.6 billion, up from P286.1 billion in March.

Of the outstanding T-bonds, three-year IOUs amounted to P95.8 billion; five-year debt paper, P346.4 billion; seven-year bonds, P556.9 billion, and 10-year bonds, P360 billion.

For the 10-year, 20-year and 25-year agrarian reform bonds, the outstanding amounts were P6.9 billion, P298.3 billion and P236 billion, respectively.

Of the $6.58 million Philippine Par Bond redenominated into 28.5 years, P97.1 million remained outstanding.

Also outstanding were P909.3 billion in benchmark bonds; P50 billion in 25-year CB-BoL T-bonds, and P25 billion in onshore dollar T-bonds.

Outstanding RTBs at end-April rose to P909.3 billion from P801.9 billion in March.

In April, the Bureau of the Treasury issued P181 billion in RTBs—P70 billion was awarded to banks during the rate-setting auction on March 28, while the general investing public snapped P111 billion from March 28 to April 7, the public offering period.
The Treasury said the RTBs generated P500 billion in tenders, making the issue oversubscribed by over 16 times the issue size of P30 billion. —BEN O. DE VERA