Gov’t IOUs hit P3.82T in Feb

MANILA, Philippines - The government issued P3.82 trillion worth of short and long-term debt papers as of the end of February, up 7.3 percent from January’s P3.56 trillion, the Bureau of the Treasury reported yesterday.

The government also issued several peso-and foreign-denominated long-term debt papers to retail and institutional investors as well as sold other types of debt during the review period.

The bulk or about P3.55 trillion came from the sale of Treasury bonds with varying tenors of three, four, five, seven, 10, 20 and 25 years.

The government’s outstanding Treasury bills issuance, on the other hand, reached P276.63 billion.  Of that amount, the government sold P81 billion worth of 91-day debt papers, P90 billion for 182-day and P105.63 billion for 365 day papers.

For the first quarter, the BTR has programmed to sell P135 billion worth of Treasury bills and bonds to support its expenditure requirements. The amount is the same size as the government’s borrowings in October to December 2014.

The government regularly holds auctions of securities to help fund the country’s budget.

For this year, the government plans to source 86 percent of its borrowings from the domestic market while the balance of 14 percent will come from foreign lenders.

The government is sticking to its policy of borrowing more from domestic sources than  from foreign creditors to avoid incurring too much foreign exchange risks.