OUTSTANDING IOUS HIT NEW HIGH OF P 7.93T

The total outstanding debt paper issued by the Bureau of the Treasury locally hit a new high of P7.93 trillion as of end-October due to sustained bond issuances, including the first-ever retail dollar bonds (RDBs) sold last month.

The latest Treasury data on Thursday showed that the face amount of outstanding treasury bills and bonds further rose from P7.85 trillion in September.

The government will raise more than 80 percent of the record P3.07-trillion gross borrowings programmed for this year through the sale of T-bills and bonds, as the domestic debt market remained awash in cash despite the prolonged pandemic.

The government also borrowed more amid the COVID-19 crisis due to weaker revenue collections and higher expenditures.

As such, the end-September debt-to-gross domestic product ratio, which reflects a country’s ability to repay debt, climbed to a 16-year high of 63.1 percent, above the 60-percent level deemed by credit ratings agencies as manageable among emerging markets like the Philippines.

Fixed rate

As of October, outstanding fixed-rate treasury bonds amounted to P7.02 trillion, the first time to breach the P7-trillion mark and up from P6.91 trillion a month ago.

It was in October when the Treasury settled the P80.6 billion in RDBs—$1.11 billion in five-year and $479.73 million in 10-year bonds, which fetched coupon rates of 1.375 percent and 2.25 percent a year, respectively.

The proceeds from the RDB sale went to the government’s COVID-19 war chest.

Meanwhile, outstanding treasury bills continued to decline, hitting P905.5 billion last month from P942.5 billion in September due to maturities of these short-dated IOUs.

The benchmark 91-day securities had an outstanding volume of P130 billion; 182-day, P214.4 billion; and 364-day, P561.1 billion. Outstanding six-month and oneyear T-bills declined compared to the previous month’s levels.

Outstanding bonds included P252.5 billion in threeyear; P471.8 billion in five-year; P908.9 billion in seven-year, and P974.5 billion in 10-year bonds.

Outstanding 10-year agrarian reform bonds amounted to P7.6 billion, while the 20-year bonds hit P475.2 billion and 25year, P235.9 billion.