The “new money” raised so far in the government’s ongoing retail treasury bonds (RTB) offer has already exceeded the P250 billion in fresh funds generated from the RTB issuance earlier this year, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said.
Rosalia de Leon, national treasurer, told reporters in a Viber group yesterday the “new money (for this issue) exceeded (the) P250 billion new money last February.”
At the same time, the BTr also offered to certain bond holders to submit offers to exchange their eligible bond holdings for the new RTBs due 2025.
De Leon did not disclose how much has been availed in the swap offer.
In February, the BTr raised P310.8 billion worth of three-year RTBs, which consisted of P250 billion in new subscriptions and P60.8 billion from the bond exchange program.
The Department of Finance earlier said about P321 billion worth of bonds are eligible for the government’s current switch offer.
The BTr already awarded P192.707 billion worth of RTBs during the price-setting auction last week.
These RTBs will have a five-year tenor and will be offered to the general investing public in minimum denominations of P5,000 from July 16 to August 7, 2020, or any earlier date as may be determined by the BTr, at an interest rate of 2.625 percent per annum.
The BTr said proceeds from the issuance will be used to aid the country’s efforts to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus disease and to support the sectors most affected by the pandemic, such as the health care system, unemployed overseas Filipino workers, and the struggling micro, small and medium enterprises.
It will also be used to fund the government’s infrastructure projects, to refinance existing debt obligations and for other national expenditures, with focus on the government’s efforts to address the current health crisis, the agency said.
