Govt raises ₧35B from T-bonds sale

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

THE national government is on a roll after it successfully raised P35 billion from the auction of Treasury bonds (T-bonds) for the seventh consecutive time.

The Bureau of the Treasury auction committee fully awarded the T-bonds as investors’ asking rates were well below the secondary market benchmark level. The reissued 10-year T-bonds fetched an average rate of 6.258 percent compared to the 6.351 percent secondary market benchmark rate for the same tenor of debt paper.

The rates for the T-bonds, which will mature on September 15, 2032, ranged from a low of 6.199 percent to a high of 6.3 percent, according to the Treasury.

“With 9 years and 6 months to maturity, the security fetched an average rate of 6.258 percent, which is below secondary market benchmark rates,” the Treasury said in a statement.

“With its decision, the committee was able to raise the full program of P35 billion, bringing the total outstanding volume for the series to P115 billion,” the Treasury added.

Tuesday’s auction was 2.63-times oversubscribed as the total amount tendered by investors reached P92.254 billion, Treasury data showed.

The government seeks to borrow P200 billion in February from the domestic market through the auction of T-bills and Treasury bonds.

(Related story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2023/01/25/government-eyes-to-borrow-p200b-

via-debt-mart/)

Tuesday’s auction reflected the first sale of debt papers this year when the Treasury was able to raise P35 billion from the full awarding of reissued T-bonds last January 3. For the whole year, the national government plans to borrow P2.207 trillion with a 75-25 mix in favor of domestic sources. In terms of domestic borrowings, the national government aims to raise a total of P1.654 trillion, P54.1 billion of which coming from the sale of Treasury bills with the remaining amount funded through the auction of T-bonds.