The government is eyeing to push through with its planned offering of retail dollar bonds (RDBs) by the next quarter, the country’s finance chief said.
Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the issuance will hopefully proceed as planned in the second quarter after it was previously announced that it will happen in late 2022 and eventually the first quarter of 2023.
Diokno said the government opted to proceed first with its recently concluded retail treasury bonds offer.
“There’s a lot of interest, from London and Frankfurt, even in Japan,” Diokno said on the sidelines of the 2023 Annual Reception for the Banking Community held in Manila last Friday evening.
Diokno also made it clear that the RDB issuance is not exclusive to overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), as he earlier said the offer can be an option for OFWs to save part of their income.
“You can buy if you have a bank account, and that is very convenient… (as you will have the option to avail it) through the app,” Diokno said.
“What’s good about it is it’s dollar-denominated. If the dollar depreciates, it’s still a win for you, plus the high interest (rate) and it’s tax-free,” he added.
Late last year, Diokno said the tenor of the planned issuance would be at least five years.
The offering could be around $3 billion or more depending on demand, the finance chief said in November 2022.
In October 2021, the Philippine government raised $1.593 billion, or around P80.83 billion, through the country’s first-ever onshore RDB offering.
The said RDBs are the first onshore US dollar-denominated bonds to be issued by the Bureau of the Treasury in amounts of as low as $300.
