Finance Secretary Ralph Recto on Monday acknowledged considering the sale of samurai bonds and a return to the global bond market with a US dollar-denominated IOU within the year.
He considered the sale of bonds under a fiscal program where the national government has already sold USD2 billion worth of foreign currency obligations but left with USD3 billion more on the drawing board.
“We are looking at the best time to do it, not only with the samurai bonds but also dollar bonds within the year,” he said at a public forum the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP) co-hosted with the San Miguel Corporation at the Ayuntamiento in Intramuros on Monday.
According to Recto, the planned bond sale is contingent on favorable interest rates not only in the samurai or Japanese bond market but also on the US dollar-denominated global bond market.
“We borrow at the lowest rate possible,” he said of his primary mandate as chief fundraiser of the national government.
