WASHINGTON, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced Wednesday plans for debt sales in the third quarter to keep the level of Treasury security issuance at a record high, at a time when a two-year budget bill is set to be enacted and drive federal deficit above 1 trillion U.S. dollars.
The Treasury Department said in a statement that is offering 84 billion dollars of Treasury securities to refund approximately 57.3 billion dollars of privately-held Treasury notes and bonds maturing on Aug. 15, 2019.
The sum includes a three-year note in the amount of 38 billion dollars maturing Aug. 15, 2022, a 10-year note in the amount of 27 billion dollars maturing Aug. 15, 2029, and a 30-year bond in the amount of 19 billion dollars maturing Aug. 15, 2049, the department said.
The three-year note will be auctioned Aug. 6, 2019, and sales of the 10-year note and the 30-year note will start Aug. 7 and Aug. 8, respectively, the department said, adding that all of these auctions will settle on Aug. 15.
This issuance will raise new cash of approximately 26.7 billion dollars, the department said.
In a statement issued Monday, the department announced that it expects to borrow 433 billion dollars in privately-held net marketable debt between July and September, 274 billion dollars higher than it announced in April. With that amount of additional borrowing, the department assumed that its cash balance will be around 350 billion dollars by the end of September.
The department also announced in Wednesday's statement details of increasing the issuance of Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, which it said is consistent with prior guidance. As for nominal coupon and Floating Rate Note, the department said it "currently anticipates no further changes in issuance sizes" for the remainder of 2019 calendar year.
The announcement came against the backdrop of the House last week passing the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019, a budget plan for fiscal years 2020 and 2021 that will suspend the federal debt ceiling for two years and, in the meantime, increase government spending by about 320 billion dollars above existing budget caps.
The budget bill, endorsed by President Donald Trump and expected to pass in the Senate, will see the budget cap for discretionary spending rise to 1.37 trillion dollars in 2020 and 1.375 trillion dollars in 2021. It is also pushing the annual federal debt deficit to above 1 trillion dollars.
The budget deficit was 779 billion dollars on Sept. 30, 2018, the end of fiscal year 2018. The Treasury Department estimated a 1.1-trillion-dollar deficit for full fiscal year 2019.
