$60bn bond issuance planned for 2009/10

This time last year Australia's Treasury imagined that the funding task for the Australian Office of Financial Management would be one of care and maintenance. The plan, then, was tinkering with and adding to existing lines of Commonwealth government bonds to maintain liquidity in the market.

A worldwide wake-up call later over the implications of the credit crunch, and the funding task for 2009/10 is now substantial.

The 2009/10 budgets papers for the Australian government show the stock of Commonwealth government securities (CGS) is likely to rise by $58 billion to $170 billion over the year.

The total stock of Commonwealth bonds on issue is expected to rise to $301 billion by 2012/13, a time at which the government anticipates worldwide economic recovery rather than any major budget initiatives will be stemming the size of its budget deficit.

In the budget papers Treasury said bond issuance in 2009/10 is expected to be around $60 billion.

In line with earlier advice to the market from the Australian Office of Financial Management the bulk of the issuance in 2009/10 will be into existing bond lines.  At least one new Treasury Bond line is planned and is expected to be a Treasury Bond maturing in 2022.

As previously foreshadowed by the AOFM, "Aussie Infrastructure Bonds", which will be nothing other than regular Commonwealth bonds in flash livery, may also be marketed at retail investors and tied to the funding needs of the National Broadband Network.

Treasury Notes, which the AOFM is also selling after a long break, is expected to be around $17 billion at the end of June 2009, with issues of Treasury Notes over the following financial year subject to the timing of revenues and expenses.