MANILA -- The Philippine government is considering the issuance of as much as USD1.5 billion-worth of US dollar-denominated bond possibly before end-2018.
National Treasurer Rosalia De Leon on Monday said they have yet to submit documents about the planned issuance to the Monetary Board (MB), but preparations are ongoing. “We are still looking at the market but we have been (doing) the usual consultations with the banks in terms of the market landscape and pipeline,” she said.
The government and the private sector are required to inform and get an MB approval of their planned borrowing here and abroad as part of the measure to control the size of the country’s liabilities and keep the debt service burden at manageable levels.
De Leon declined to indicate the possible tenor for the planned issuance, saying this is still being studied given the maturities in January 2019.
If the planned dollar-denominated issuance pushes through it will be the second for the government this year after the 10-year dollar-denominated Republic of the Philippines (ROP) bond issuance last January.
Also, it will be the fourth in terms of foreign borrowing for the government after the 1.46 billion renminbi-denominated three-year Panda bond issuance last March and the multi-year 154.2 billion Japanese yen Samurai bond last week.
De Leon said they are not in a hurry to borrow again, pointing out that “we are very deep in terms of our liquidity.”
“It is just that, again, we have a deficit to finance so we are just making sure we smoothen the funding pipeline, our program, that we don’t have to bump up,” she said.
De Leon added that dollar denominated paper is not the only securities they are considering, suggesting the possibility of another Panda bond or Samurai bond issuance in 2019. (PNA)
