The country’s local currency (LCY) bond market recorded a 2.2 percent quarter-on-quarter growth in the first quarter of 2024 due to increased issuances from the government and the central bank.
According to the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Asia Bond Monitor report, growth in the Philippines’ LCY bond market picked up in the first three months of the year, with bonds outstanding reaching a size of P12.3 trillion at the end of March.
The quarter-on-quarter growth in the first quarter was faster than the one percent increase recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023.
The report said treasury and other government bonds outstanding posted growth of 2.7 percent on a quarterly basis and the stock of central bank securities rose 20.2 percent in the first quarter of 2024.
However, corporate bonds outstanding continued to decline in the first three months of the year at a pace of 8.2 percent quarter-on-quarter due to a large number of maturities and a low volume of issuance during the quarter, the ADB said.
LCY bond issuance rebounded with a growth of 37.3 percent in the first quarter of 2024 for a total of P3.1 trillion, reversing a contraction of 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2023.
“The increase in overall issuance was largely driven by Treasury and other government bonds, whose issuance expanded almost threefold to P1.2 trillion from the previous quarter’s P0.4 trillion, as the government frontloaded its issuance for the year,” the ADB said.
“On the other hand, due to the elevated interest rate environment, corporate bond issuance dipped 0.1 percent quarter-on-quarter during the quarter, with only two firms tapping the bond market: BDO Unibank (P63.3 billion) and Filinvest Development Corp. (P10 billion),” it added.
