WASHINGTON - The U.S. Treasury estimated it will borrow $276 billion of net marketable debt in the third quarter of 2012, assuming a $60 billion cash balance on September 30, the Treasury announced Monday afternoon.
The borrowing estimate is higher than the prior estimate of $265 billion, which assumed a cash balance of $95 billion at the end of September.
"The increase is primarily due to lower receipts, higher outlays, redemptions of portfolio holdings by the Federal Reserve System and higher issuances of State and Local Government securities," Treasury said.
In the second quarter of 2012, Treasury's actual borrowing was $172 billion, while the end-of-quarter cash balance was $91 billion.
For the second quarter of 2012, Treasury had estimated it would borrow $182 billion, assuming a $95 billion cash balance on June 30.
"The decrease in borrowing was driven by higher net issuances of State and Local Government Series securities partially offset by higher-than-projected outlays," Treasury said.
Looking ahead, Treasury said that it expects to borrow $316 billion in the fourth quarter, with an end-of-quarter cash balance of $40 billion on December 31.
Details of the quarterly refunding are scheduled to be released on Wednesday, August 1 at 9:00 a.m. ET.
