by Saleha Mohsin and Liz Capo McCormick
Yahoo! Finance, Canada
(Bloomberg) — The U.S. Treasury is boosting the amount of debt it plans to issue in the coming quarterly refunding auctions to a record $96 billion to provide government funding as the economy heads into a recession caused by the coronavirus.
The department said Wednesday it anticipates auctioning the first re-booted 20-year bond on May 20, with an expected initial offering size of $20 billion — larger than most analysts projected. It also unveiled plans to boost overall issuance with a focus on increases to longer-term debt.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s plans for unprecedented debt issuance come as the Trump administration braces for what it sees as a 40% contraction in economic growth in the second quarter. The federal deficit is set to surpass estimates of $4 trillion for this year as lawmakers discuss additional economic stimulus.