PH on track in borrowing program

De Leon said they are still monitoring external developments for the planned Republic of the Philippines (ROP) bond. (PNA photo)

MANILA — National Treasurer Rosalia De Leon on Monday said that government is on track in its borrowing program for this year, citing that the planned US dollar bond issuance in the fourth quarter is for pre-funding.

“Even for the global bond, if ever we do issue it would be for prefunding for next year,” she told reporters in an interview.

The government’s programmed borrowing for this year is PHP986 billion, while next year that goes up to PHP1.19 trillion.

As of end-September this year, the government has borrowed PHP551.616 billion. Last September alone, government borrowing amounted to PHP129.60 billion.

De Leon said they are still monitoring external developments for the planned Republic of the Philippines (ROP) bond.

She said they are still considering to issue tenors of between 10 to 25 years and stressed that “we’ll just see how market development will be.

”

“We will have to see again in the coming weeks how the market will play out. We continue to be very watchful of market developments, what would be a good opportunity for us to be able to go out,” she said.

The planned ROP bond issuance this quarter will be the second for the country this year after the USD2-billion worth of 25-year global bond issued last January.

Of the total issuance at the start of the year, USD500 million was in new money while the remaining volume was used to swap previously-issued bond with higher yields.