Philippines Raises $4.1 Billion in Jumbo Peso Bond Offering

Karl Lester M. Yap and Ditas B Lopez

Thu, February 19, 2026 at 12:58 PM GMT+9 1 min read

Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) – The Philippines raised 235 billion pesos ($4.1 billion) in new money from a bond sale that drew strong demand as investors locked in higher yields on bets the central bank may cut interest rates again Thursday.

The offer period, which was supposed to end Friday, was cut short after the funding target was reached in a sale targeted at institutional investors, the Bureau of the Treasury said in a statement on its website Thursday. Investors can still exchange old debt for the new securities until Friday.

“The government doesn’t need that much money now as spending has yet to pick up, so less borrowing is needed,” said Michael Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. in Manila. The 10-year yield could decline further to 5.8% by June, he said, from 5.925% on Wednesday.

With the Philippine economy expanding at its slowest in 14 years outside of the pandemic, most analysts expect the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to deliver a sixth consecutive rate cut later today. Philippine officials are already taking advantage of falling borrowing costs with benchmark yields down about 50 basis points from a peak in June.

In April, the government raised 300 billion pesos from its maiden offering of such notes. That offering didn’t include a debt exchange component.

The government plans to sell debt targeting individual investors in the coming months and is keeping an eye out for possible return to the global bond market again this year, Treasurer Sharon Almanza said Wednesday.

The government plans to increase its gross borrowings this year by about 3% to 2.68 trillion pesos.

(Updates throughout)

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