Debt management report: public debt at Rs 65, 65,652Cr as of end-Sept

The Public Debt (excluding liabilities under the 'Public Account') of the Central Government has witnessed a provisional increase of Rs. 65,65,652 crore as of end September, from Rs. 64,03,138 crore at end-June 2017, stated the Ministry of Finance.

Further, the internal debt constitutes 93 percent of public debt as of end-September, while marketable securities account for 82.6 percent of public debt, as per the Quarterly Report on Debt Management for the quarter July-September 2017.

During Q2 FY18, the government had issued dated securities of Rs. 1,89,000 crore, higher than Rs. 1,68,000 crore in Q1 of FY 17, taking the Gross Borrowings during H1 FY18 to Rs. 3,57,000 crore. Further, auctions of both, the government dated securities and Treasury Bills during Q2 of FY18 went over smoothly.

The weighted average maturity (WAM) and weighted average yield (WAY) of the issuance made during Q2 FY18 was 14.58 years and 6.77 percent respectively, the report noted.

The liquidity in the economy remained in surplus, due to demonetisation, during the quarter. The cash position of the Government during Q2 of FY18 was somewhat stressed and the Centre was required to resort to W&M advances from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on a few occasions, the report observed.

Based on the assessment of prevailing and evolving liquidity conditions, the RBI conducted sale of government securities under Open Market Operations for an aggregate amount of 600 billion during the quarter.

The report further noted that about 27.8 percent of outstanding stock has a residual maturity of up to five years at the end of Sept 2017, which implies that over the next five years, on an average, around 5.56 percent of outstanding stock needs to be repaid every year. Thus, rollover risk in the debt portfolio continues to be low, the Ministry opined.