By Yoruk Bahceli
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Netherlands expects to borrow 101.5 billion euros ($107.8) on the debt markets next year, the most since 2012, and its funding needs are “extremely uncertain” as much depends on the energy price outlook, the country’s debt agency said on Friday.
Around 50 billion euros will be raised from long-term debt, the Dutch State Treasury Agency (DSTA) said.
The Netherlands will also sell a new, 20-year green bond, its second bond, in the format that funds environmentally-friendly projects. The Netherlands sold its first green bond in 2019, which has since raised 15.7 billion euros.
The DSTA said its funding needs are “extremely uncertain” as the budgetary impact of the goverment’s energy price cap depends on how energy prices evolve and how much energy businesses and households use.
To tackle that uncertainty, the exact format of 21 billion euros, or just over 40%, of the longer-term issuance, was left undetermined.
“We always leave a part yet to be determined but the size is larger this time, which will give us more flexibility,” DSTA head Saskia van Dun told Reuters.
For that amount, the agency will consider re-opening existing bonds, or sell higher amounts than outlined for new bonds it has announced, van Dun said.
The biggest challenge will be “to make sure we do the right things at the right times. To monitor the trends and developments and the monetary policy… the interest rate hikes, so that we issue our bonds at the right moments,” she added.
From next year, van Dun said the Netherlands will also change the way it assesses market-making by its primary dealers – banks appointed by governments to buy their debt at auctions and sell it to investors and manage its trading.
The DSTA will assess how much dealer quotes deviate from its fixed trading rules, whereas previously it only considered quotes by dealers who traded within the price ranges it set.
The Dutch plans follow a loosening of rules this year to help traders cope with challenging market conditions as central banks tighten monetary policy.
JPMorgan will join the Netherlands’ primary dealers in 2023, the DSTA said.
(Reporting by Yoruk Bahceli; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe and Barbara Lewis)
