Govt's liabilities rise 2.6% to Rs 150.95 lakh cr in October-December 2022

The government's total liabilities rose to Rs 150.95 lakh crore in December quarter from Rs 147.19 lakh crore in the three months ended September 2022, according to the latest public debt management report.

The increase reflects a quarter-on-quarter increase of 2.6 per cent in October-December 2022-23.

In absolute terms, the total liabilities, including liabilities under the 'Public Account' of the government, jumped to Rs 1,50,95,970.8 crore at the end of December 2022.

As of September 30, the total liabilities stood at Rs 1,47,19,572.2 crore.

The report released by the finance ministry on Saturday said public debt accounted for 89 per cent of the total outstanding liabilities in December quarter, compared to 89.1 per cent at the end of September.

Nearly 28.29 per cent of the outstanding dated securities had a residual maturity of less than 5 years.

During Q3 of FY23, it said, the Centre raised an amount worth Rs 3,51,000 crore through dated securities, as against notified amount of Rs 3,18,000 crore in the borrowing calendar.

During the quarter an amount of Rs 85,377.9 crore due for redemption was repaid on maturity date, it said.

Weighted average yield of primary issuances hardened to 7.38 per cent in Q3 FY23, from 7.33 per cent in Q2 of FY23, it added.

The weighted average maturity of new issuances of dated securities elongated to 16.56 years in Q3 of FY23, as compared to 15.62 years in Q2 of FY23.

During October-December 2022, it said, the government did not raise any amount through the Cash Management Bills.

The Reserve Bank did not conduct Open Market operations for government securities during the quarter.

The net daily average liquidity absorption by RBI under Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF) including Marginal Standing Facility and Special Liquidity Facility was at Rs 39,604 crore during the quarter, the report said.

With regard to the yield, the report said, interest rate on 10-year benchmark security softened from 7.40 per cent at the close of the quarter on September 30, 2022 to 7.33 per cent at the close on December 30, 2022, thus softening by 7 bps during the quarter.

On December 7, 2022 the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to hike the policy repo rate by 35 bps, from 5.90 per cent to 6.25 per cent largely with an intention to contain inflation.

On February 8, the Reserve Bank hiked the key benchmark policy rate by 25 basis points to 6.5 per cent, citing sticky core inflation.