The first month of 2023 has not yet finished, but so far this year the Ministry of Tax authorities already promotes a strategy of financing important.
Yesterday the ministry announced the issuance of a US$2.2 billion global bond maturing in 2034, and so far in January there have also been eight auctions of TES (public debt securities)in the domestic market.
(See: “There are still no final estimates of oil and gas reserves”: Ocampo).
At the end of last year the Treasury presented its 2023 Financial Plan, a document in which the portfolio illustrated the financing needs for this year.
There the Minister of Finance, Jose Antonio Ocampoindicated that among the budgeted resources there are US$5.100 million of external origin, while in internal capital a financing of $36 trillion is contemplated, ‘basically the issuance of TES’, indicated the head of the portfolio.
(See: Ocampo proposes to create institutions for countries to renegotiate the debt).
This, according to Ministerin order to have a good amount of extraordinary resources for the payment of external debtwhich will be done at the beginning of 2024.
Proof of this effort is the boost given by the portfolio with treasury securities in these four weeks.
The TES placement program short-term bonds for 2023 began on January 3, with the issuance of $375,000 million in short-term treasury securities (TCO) maturing on December 5 of this year, for which $775,000 million were received.
Since then there have been another seven auctions of TESwhich have had a favorable reception in the market.
Of the total, four have been for short-term titles and a fourth for long-term ones.
In fact, the last one was held yesterday, in which the auction of $900,000 million in Treasury Securities was successfully achieved (TES) denominated in pesos (COP) maturing in 2033. This received, according to the ministry, purchase offers for $2.5 billion.
“An emerging country like Colombia is always very active in funding strategies, and clearly the international context is challenging. Interest rates a year ago were much lower than what we have today, but for now the strategy does not look bad, since we are in a complicated economy, debt is generally expensive no matter how it is financed”explained Wilson Tovar, manager of Investigations at Stocks & Securities.
(See: Ocampo’s call in Davos for greater tax justice).
Tovar pointed out, however, that a couple of months ago we had an exchange rate of $5,000 and in the last few days it has dropped to $4,500. “That alleviates a bit, but also the debt that we take on in dollars will represent less pesos”he explained.
On the other hand, Juan David Ballén, director of Analysis Y Strategy of Casa de Bolsa, also said that the strategy “is going well” and sees the initiative as favorable.
(See: The owners of wealth should be more transparent, says Ocampo).
According to Ballén, since Colombia usually has a fiscal deficit, you should always go out and look for financing both in the local and international markets the cups found in the market, which in recent years have risen due to the increase in overall inflation.
“Let us remember that last year the government ended the TES auctions early due to the volatility that occurred in October as a result of the interventions related to the prohibition of hydrocarbon exploration in the country. But this year they resumed the auctions as normal, taking advantage of the calm in the financial markets, with the expectation of the publication of the energy transition study next May”said the expert about it.
LAURA LUCIA BECERRA ELEJALDE
PORTFOLIO JOURNALIST
