Funds to settle maturing debts, cover budget gap
MANILA, Philippines--AFTER RAISING $1.5 BILLION FROM A BOND sale last week, the national government will again tap the international capital market next month by floating as much as one billion euros to settle its maturing euro-denominated obligations.
Roberto Juanchito Dispo, executive vice president of First Metro Investment Corp., said yesterday that the government might sell anywhere between 500 million and one billion euros worth of global bonds to finance about 600 million euros of obligations that will fall due in February.
FMIC, which served as underwriter for some government bond issues in the past, may be tapped again for the planned bond sale in February.
“Government bond issues this year may be the same as last year’s,” Dispo said in a briefing on FMIC’s economic and market outlook for 2010. He said the government’s total commercial borrowing requirement for this year would likely be the same as or close to the $3.25 billion in 2009.
Besides financing its maturing loans, the government needs to borrow to cover a yawning budget deficit.
FMIC expects the budget gap to settle a little below P300 billion this year, or 3.5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
http://business.inquirer.net