THE GOVERNMENT will “most likely” tap the renminbi debt market as one of its regular financing sources after it saw robust demand at its maiden offer.
Asked whether the Duterte administration will regularly participate in the panda bond market, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said “most likely” in a mobile message to reporters last week, without elaborating.
On March 20, the government raised 1.46 billion renminbi, or about $230 million, in three-year debt papers, with bids reaching more than six times that brought the coupon to the low end of the 5.00-5.60% price guidance.
The proceeds of the government’s issuance will be converted into peso and will be deposited with the BSP, and will help fund the government’s infrastructure projects and other financing requirements.
The government plans to spend about P8 trillion in infrastructure until 2022, the end of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s six-year term, in a bid to grow the economy by 7-8% until then from the 6.7% logged in 2017 and the 6.3% average in 2010-2016.

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