The Centre met market expectations on Thursday when it retained its gross borrowing plan for October-March 2025 at ₹6.61 lakh crore (trillion), which will be raised through the issue of dated securities.

The bond markets had been pencilling in either a small cut in the borrowing or had expected that the number will be maintained.

The announcement comes at a time bond yields have declined because of moderating inflation and the US Fed slashing interest rates by 50 basis points. With no negative surprises coming from the government on the borrowing front, yields which move in opposite direction to prices could remain steady.

“The government of India maintained its gross borrowing figure for the second half of 2024-25 at ₹6.61 trillion, in line with Icra’s expectations. While this is only marginally higher than the year-ago levels, a sharp decline in redemptions would entail a 32 per cent year-on-year expansion in the net borrowings to ₹6 trillion in the second half of the fiscal,” Aditi Nayar, chief economist, head — research & outreach, Icra Ltd, said.

“Aided by the favourable outlook for revenues and a possible undershooting of the ambitious capex target, Icra expects the government’s fiscal deficit to print in line with or mildly trail the 2024-25 revised budget estimate of ₹16.1 trillion, or 4.9 per cent of GDP, at the current juncture,’’ Nayar said.

The Centre had budgeted to raise ₹14.01 lakh crore through market borrowings, with ₹7.4 lakh crore, or 52.8 per cent of the sum, raised in the first half.

The market borrowing will be spread over papers of eight tenures from 3-5-7-10 to 15-, 30-, 40- and 50-year papers, with ₹20,000 crore raised through sovereign green bonds. The share of borrowing under different maturities will be 3-year (5.3 per cent), 5-year (10.6 per cent), 7-year (7.6 per cent) and 10-year (24.8 per cent).

The Centre will raise 13.2 per cent of the sum through 15-year paper and, 12.1 per cent through 30-years, 15.9 per cent through 40- year and 10.6 per cent in 50-year paper.