Spain Government Bonds

Spanish government bonds are obligations of the Spanish government issued by the Spanish Public Treasury.

Letras del Tesoro are short-term fixed income instruments. They were created in June 1987, when the book-entry system was established. Letras are issued in auctions. These instruments are issued at a discount. Treasury currently issues Letras del Tesoro with the following terms: 3-month, 6-month, 9-month and 12-month.

Bonos and Obligaciones del Estado are Treasury Securities with maturities above two years. Bonos and Obligaciones have exactly the same features, except for their maturity. Maturities of Bonos range from two to five years, while Obligaciones have maturities of more than five years.

The issuance of Bonos and Obligaciones del Estado is made through competitive auctions. The Treasury currently issues Government Bonds with the following maturities: 2-year, 3-year, 5-year, 10-year, 15-year, 30-year.

Since the beginning of the 1980s, the Kingdom of Spain has taken an active part in international capital markets, which has allowed it to diversify its financing sources and risk distribution. At present, foreign currency-denominated financing plays a complementary role to euro-denominating financing, in addition to the possible obtaining of cost savings. One of its primordial objectives, in addition to the potential obtaining of cost savings through arbitration-based transactions, is to diversify the international investor base in bonds issued by the Kingdom of Spain. The percentage of the Treasury debt in foreign currency with respect to total debt in circulation is around 1.5%.