THE eruption of Taal Volcano has prompted finance officials and bank executives to put a halt in operations on Monday.
For one, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) postponed the scheduled auction on Monday of T-bills worth P20 billion.
National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon said the auction would just be rescheduled to January 14.
The BTr was supposed to conduct an auction of its short-term debt papers on Monday afternoon, particularly on the 91-day, 182-day, and 364-day T-bills.
However, Malacañang declared near midnight of Sunday the suspension of classes and government operations in the National Capital Region, Region 3 and Region 4A.
Except for the 364-day T-bill which amounted to P8 billion, the other two T-bills are at P6 billion.
The settlement date for the T-bills is on January 15, 2020, according to the public offering released by the BTr dated January 6, 2020.
The maturity dates for 91-day and the 182-day T-bills are on April 15, 2020, and July 15, 2020, respectively, while the 364-day T-bill is set to mature on January 13, 2021.
For the first quarter of the year, the government is planning to borrow P420 billion from the domestic market.
According to the schedule of T-bills and T-bond offering for the first quarter of the year addressed to all government securities eligible dealers, the government is set to float P240 billion worth of T-bills and P180 billion worth of T-bonds from January to March.
The T-bills auction is scheduled on Mondays from January to March, while the T-bonds auction is set on Tuesdays of every other week, starting January 7 to March 17.
The borrowing program of P420 billion for this quarter is also higher than the P360 billion set for the first quarter of 2019 and nearly double than P220 billion for the last quarter.
For this year, the government is planning to borrow a record P1.4 trillion with a 75:25 borrowing mix in favor of domestic sources. This is higher than the P1.19 trillion borrowing program last year.
De Leon earlier said that the country’s debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio is expected to remain at 41.4 percent by end-2020 despite the higher borrowing program.
As of end-November last year, the national government’s outstanding debt was posted at P7.709 trillion, which is 2.5 percent lower than the previous month’s level due to net redemption of domestic government securities.