Since January, the Mozambican government has placed 24,920 million meticais in treasury bonds through the stock exchange, with the legal availability to issue a further 11,728 million meticais by the end of the year.

Decree 14/2023, issued by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, states that from January 18, the issue of Treasury Bonds (OT) - public debt issued with longer maturities - for this year provides for an overall limit of 36,648 million meticais, preferably in two monthly issues, until December 5.

Meanwhile, data from the Mozambique Stock Exchange (BVM) compiled on Monday by Lusa indicate that 12 issues have already been made in 2023, with maturities of up to 10 years and interest ranging from 17 to 19%.

The amounts raised in each operation ranged from 475 million meticais on August 8, the last of these issues, to 5,946 million meticais raised in the operation held on March 7.

In indicative terms, the next treasury bond issue by BVM should take place on August 22, with the state still having the capacity to borrow another 11,728 million meticais (168.5 million euros) from the market by the end of the year, having so far reached 68% of the legal limit for OT debt by the end of the year.

Figures previously published by Lusa, based on the budget execution reports for the first quarter, show that Mozambique's current domestic debt totaled almost 295,733 million meticais on March 31, between Treasury bonds and Treasury bills - with shorter maturities.

The Mozambican government previously approved the so-called Public Debt Management Strategy 2023-2026, which guides debt options over the next few years and aims to "bring limits to debt sustainability indicators in credit contraction".

In terms of external debt, he plans to "prioritize financing in the form of donations" and "in the form of highly concessional credits for profitable projects", while in terms of internal debt, the priority will be to "prioritize the issuance of long-maturity treasury bonds".