THE Bureau of the Treasury is set to borrow a total of P170 billion from the local debt market in May, the same level it programmed to borrow in April.
The Treasury is scheduled to auction off next month a total of P100 billion in Treasury Bills (T-bills) and P70 billion in Treasury Bonds (T-bonds). It also retained the tenors of government securities it offered last month.
National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon told reporters last Tuesday they want to “build liquidity and make the curve more efficient.”
“Investors [are] biased on the belly for yield pick-up without long duration risk,” De Leon said.
In each of the four Mondays of May, the Treasury is set to offer P25 billion in 91-day, 182-day and 364-day T-bills. On the other hand, it will be offering P35-billion in 5-year T-bonds on May 4 and another P35 billion in 7-year T-bonds on May 18.
The country aims to borrow a total of P3.03 trillion this year, roughly the same amount it borrowed in 2020.
The national government’s outstanding debt as of end-February this year soared to a new record high of P10.406 trillion as the government continued to borrow more money.
The government borrows to finance its spending requirements as well as to cover its budget deficit. Budget deficits occur when expenditures exceed revenues.
Data from the Bureau of the Treasury released on Tuesday showed the government’s budget deficit for the first quarter of the year almost quadrupled to P321.5 billion from only P86.2 billion in the same period a year ago as government expenditures spent more despite collecting less revenues.
For this year, the government expects the budget deficit to reach a new record-high of P1.78 trillion or 8.9 percent of gross domestic product, even higher than the P1.37 trillion or 7.6 percent deficit-to-GDP ratio it recorded last year.
For 2022, the government’s economic managers expect the country’s budget deficit to settle to 1.64 trillion or 7.3 percent of GDP.
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