Government's public debt rises 3% in Q2

The public debt of the Union government increased 3 per cent in the second quarter ended September, compared to the previous quarter, an official statement said on Monday.

"The Public Debt (excluding liabilities under the 'Public Account') of the central government provisionally increased by 3 per cent in second quarter of 2016-17 on Q-o-Q basis," a Finance Ministry statement here as the Quarterly Report on Debt Management for July-September 2016 was released.

Internal debt made up 92.3 per cent of public debt as at end-September 2016, while marketable securities accounted for 83.4 per cent, the report said.

About 26.2 per cent of outstanding stock has a residual maturity of up to 5 years, which implies that over the next five years, on an average, around 5.6 per cent of outstanding stock needs to be rolled over every year.

"Thus, the rollover risk in debt portfolio continues to be low. The implementation of budgeted buyback/switches in coming months is expected to reduce rollover risk further," it added.

The government issued dated securities worth Rs 1.76 lakh crore during the second quarter of the fiscal, taking gross borrowings in first half of 2016-17 to Rs 3.41 lakh crore, or 56.8 per cent of Budget Estimate (BE), as compared to 58.5 per cent of BE in the same period of 2015-16.

"Net market borrowings during first half of ongoing fiscal year was at Rs 124,777 crore, 55.1 per cent of BE. Auctions, both government dated securities and treasury bills, during second quarter of 2016-17 were held in accordance with the pre-announced issuance calendar," the report said.

It also said government securities' (G-sec) yields declined sharply during the quarter, with 10 year segment gaining the most, "on the back of softening of crude prices, increase in risk appetite globally after sharp correction post Brexit, passage of GST Bill by Upper House of Parliament, liquidity easing measures of RBI, expectation of rate cut from RBI, etc".

"The trading volume of government securities on an outright basis during the second quarter of 2016-17 increased by 78.45 per cent over the previous quarter," it added.

--IANS

bc/vd