They increase their holding of short-term debt to 30% of the total, with 21,352 million euros

MADRID, 26 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Households and private non-profit institutions serving households (Isflsh) have gone from having 99 million euros in Treasury bills in September 2022 to 21,352 million in September 2023, becoming the largest for the second consecutive month. holders of this type of short-term debt.

According to the latest data published by the Bank of Spain and collected by Europa Press, the high profitability of short-term securities has had a very considerable effect on the distribution of Treasury bill holdings, where households and non-financial institutions have significantly increased its participation in the last year, going from a share of 0.1% in September 2022 to almost 30% in September 2023.

After increasing their holdings by 5% compared to the previous month, households are for the second time in history as the largest holder of Spanish Treasury bills, ahead of foreign investors (18,704 million), public administrations (3,732 million ), non-financial corporations (6,426 million), monetary financial institutions (11,054 million) and money market funds and other financial intermediaries (10,217 million).

And the improvement in the interests offered, in line with the increases in interest rates by the European Central Bank (ECB) in recent months, has maintained the markets' investor appetite for Spanish securities.

Thus, individual investors are showing great interest in purchasing debt, mainly in the short term, given its high profitability, which has been growing since the beginning of 2022, especially in the case of shorter-term bills.

However, in the latest bill auctions held this November the Treasury has cut the remuneration offered, marked by the recent decision of the European Central Bank (ECB) to leave interest rates intact after ten consecutive increases. In addition, the United States Federal Reserve (Fed) has also chosen to maintain rates, in its case for the second consecutive time.

Specifically, the profitability of 6-month bills has fallen from 3.830% in October to 3.747% in November, while the 12-month interest rate has been cut from 3.876% to 3.630%.

For its part, in the 3-month bills, a profitability of 3.580% was offered in the last issue, below the 3.590% of the previous auction, while for the 9-month bills, a remuneration of 3.705% was offered, below the 3.818% previous.

The gross issuance by the Public Treasury will be 256,930 million euros this year, which represents an increase of 8.2% compared to what is estimated for 2022, due to the rise in interest rates.

Regarding net issuance, the first vice president and Minister of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, announced last month that Spain will reduce the debt issuance planned for 2023 by 5 billion euros thanks to the "good performance" of the Spanish economy and "loose" compliance with fiscal objectives.

With this, Spain will go from a net debt issue of 70,000 million to 65,000 million, which puts the country in a position of "resilience and strength in this context of rising interest rates," according to Calviño.