MANILA, Philippines — The Aquino administration will likely sell two retail bond tranches targeted at small investors within the first-semester and second-half of the year, the Bureau of Treasury said.

National Treasurer Roberto B. Tan said in an interview with reporters that the government's issuance of retail treasury bonds (RTBs) will be regular this year to satisfy demand from retail investors.

“We're continuing our RTBs, which will be regular like twice a year,” Tan said.

The government will likely sell one retail bonds sale within the first-six months of the year and another in the second-semester.

In October, the government successfully sold P110 billion worth of 10-year and 15-year retail bonds, higher than the P104 billion worth of RTBs the government sold in March.

The issuance of retail bonds is part of the government’s savings mobilization program designed to make government securities available to retail investors and at the same time create savings consciousness among Filipinos.

The government has been tapping funds from individuals since 2001 and had raised more than P200 billion from the sale of the bonds with denominations as low as P5,000 in the past two years.

Aside from retail bonds, Tan said the government will “definitely” conduct another debt-exchange this year.

“We have to assess our profile and see if the market is receptive of a debt exchange, based on that profile,” the treasurer pointed.

In July last year, the government issued P67.6 billion of Long 10-year benchmark bonds due January 2022 and P255.8 billion of 20-year benchmark bonds due July 2031 in exchange for P292.5 billion of eligible bonds tendered by investors.

That bond swap, the country’s largest domestic bond exchange transaction to date, is part of the liability management program of the government to smoothen its debt maturity profile, extend the maturity of existing peso liabilities and establish liquid benchmarks at the long end of the yield curve.

The transaction substantially reduces the bunching of the country’s debt maturities, particularly in the medium term, and significantly mitigates its refinancing risk.

The transaction achieved cashflow and debt service relief of P152.6 billion in the medium term, which the government may channel to its infrastructure and socio-economic projects.

The bond swap extended the average maturity of the portfolio of eligible bonds by 37.9 percent or approximately 2.08 years with the extension of average maturity of accepted bonds from 5.48 years to 18.01 years.