Portugal pays lower interest rates issuing 10Y government bonds

  • ECO News
  • 14 November 2018

Portugal has placed €1,25 bn in government bonds. The Portuguese treasury paid lower market interest rates to issue 10-year debt and slightly higher ones for the issuing of 5-year debt.

According to the  IGCP, the agency that manages the public debt, 752 million euros in treasury bonds were issued with maturity on October 17, 2028 (about 10 years) at an interest rate of 1.908%, below that of October 10 (1.939%) and above the 1.670% low seen on May 9.

Demand for 10-year treasury bonds amounted to €1.435bn, 1.91 times the amount placed.

As for treasury bonds with maturity on October 25, 2023 (about five years) 498 million euros were issued at the interest rate of 0.702%, above the previous comparable auction of September 12 (0.647%) and the minimum, of 0.529 %, also registered on May 9.

Demand for the five-year treasury bonds amounted to €1,162 bn or 2.33 times the amount allocated.

The IGCP announced today that it will hold two treasury bonds auctions with maturity on October 25, 2023 (about five years) and on October 17, 2028 (about 10 years) with an overall indicative amount standing between €1bn and €1,25bn.

With this auction, the IGCP intends to prepay part of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) loan,” the institution said this Wednesday.

For the asset management director at Banco Carregosa, Filipe Silva, Portugal’s debt issuance is “in line with the market and meeting the expectations that were lower than 0.8% in five-year and below 2% debt 10-year debt “.

Regarding the changes in interest rates observed today, Filipe Silva said that these have no great significance.

“The Portuguese debt risk premium is not rising, despite the Italian situation. In fact, even the Italian debt’s ‘spread’ is still,” he said, adding that “the demand was very good as the Portuguese Treasury achieved the €1,25bn target”.

Filipe Silva concluded that “medium-term (five years) and long-term (10 years) debt issuance at low rates continues to be a very positive strategy” since “this is how we can reduce the average cost of Portuguese debt.”