The Public Debt Management Office (PDMO) has a public debt management plan of 2.3 trillion baht under the fiscal 2021 budget, says PDMO director-general Patricia Mongkhonvanit.
Although the debt management figures are higher this year compared with last year, attributed to the 1-trillion-baht emergency loan decree to alleviate the Covid-19 crisis, with the remaining 600 billion left for fiscal 2021, the PDMO has been discussing this issue with market participants in order to prevent an undesirable effect on the debenture market, Mrs Patricia said.
Despite higher funding needs of the government for fiscal 2021 due to additional loans for relief measures and an estimated budget deficit of 523 billion baht, the PDMO can still enter the bond market to sustain market confidence, she said.
At present, bond sell-offs by non-resident investors still remain at a normal rate, with the bond yield curve seen with no irregularity.
Month-to-date foreign outflows in the bond market tallied 1.7 billion baht as of Oct 22 after seeing inflows worth 24 billion baht in September, according to the Thai Bond Market Association. Year-to-date foreign outflows totalled 73.3 billion baht.
There are several tools to raise funds under the 2.3-trillion-baht debt management plan, including issuing government bonds worth 800 billion baht, issuing 1 billion baht worth of savings bonds and issuing Treasury bills and short-term loans, Mrs Patricia said.
For the 1-trillion-baht loan decree, the remaining loan amount currently stands at 600 billion baht and the PDMO plans to disburse the loan gradually to stimulate the economy, she said.
Public debt was registered at 7.7 trillion baht as of August, accounting for 47.9% of GDP, according to PDMO data.
The sum is considered the highest public debt threshold since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, when public debt to GDP climbed to 47.84%.