By Karl Angelo N. Vidal
Reporter
THE GOVERNMENT plans to borrow P270 billion from the domestic market next quarter through auctions of securities, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) announced on Tuesday.
In a memorandum posted on its Web site, the Treasury said it will sell P180 billion worth of Treasury bills (T-bill) and P90 billion worth of Treasury bonds (T-bond) in the next three months.
The planned borrowing for October-December is slightly less than the P300 billion it offered this quarter but more than the P150 billion placed on the auction block in 2017’s fourth quarter.
Broken down, the government plans to raise P15 billion through T-bills — P4 billion in 91-day tenor, P5 billion in 182-day debt, and P6 billion in 364-day bills — which will be offered in five auctions in October four in November and three in December.
For T-bonds, the Treasury will auction off five-year, seven-year and 10-year debt papers.
Following Tuesday’s T-bond sale, Deputy Treasurer Erwin D. Sta. Ana said: “Basically, it’s the same approach as the last quarter. Same volume and same frequency.”
This quarter, out of its P300-billion program, the government borrowed P200.6 billion from domestic creditors, with bulk of awards made in Treasury bills.
One bond trader noted the planned borrowing was “more on the long end,” saying the government was “trying to catch up with rising interest rates. If their projection is higher inflation number, I guess they better lock in the yields for their borrowing.”
The central bank is widely expected to adopt another 50-basis point interest rate hike tomorrow, after a cumulative 100-bp hike so far this year.

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