Exclusive: Austria Debt Head: Will Not Issue in Long End of Curve at Any Price in 2026
4 December 2025
Exclusive: Austria Debt Head: Will Not Issue in Long End of Curve at Any Price in 2026
- Markus Stix, Austrian Treasury Managing Director: 2026 gross issuance seen €43–45bn vs. €45bn in 2025
- Stix: “We again aim for three euro syndications” in 2026
- Stix: Will be active in issuance in 1H26, but will keep “some powder dry for later”
- Stix: Open to opportunistic long-end issuance via taps of outstanding century bonds
- Stix: No plans to issue a new century bond in 2026
- Stix: New green bond via syndication in 2026 “one of many options”
- Stix: Would consider CHF market again to fund new green eligible expenditures
- Stix: No plans to add additional tenors to Bundesschatz program
By Marta Vilar – MADRID (Econostream) – Austria will not issue bonds at the longer end of the curve at any price, according to Markus Stix, Managing Director in charge of markets at the Austrian Treasury.
In an interview with Econostream on Thursday (transcript here), Stix said Austria’s 2026 funding outlook, published today, envisioned gross issuance of some €43-45 billion, compared to €45 billion this year.
Redemptions would be about €10 billion higher in 2026 than in 2025, he noted, meaning net issuance would “decrease substantially, supporting this year’s strong secondary market performance of RAGBs into next year.”
Treasury bills and commercial paper issuance would rise to around €2.4 billion, he said.
Austria would maintain its target of three euro-denominated syndications in 2026, Stix said, with roughly one third of RAGB issuance via syndication, about 45% through auctions and the remainder through bilateral taps and own-quota issuance.
Among the syndicated deals, one would be a new 10-year on-the-run benchmark. Beyond that, he said, the Treasury would aim to strike the right balance between investor sentiment and its own issuance goals while also considering the tenor needs of federal states and affiliated entities.
On long-end supply, Stix said Austria already held a long average maturity and would continue watching curve steepness, but he stressed that they would “not issue in the long end at any price.”
Asked whether a front-loaded funding profile was likely, Stix pointed to a “considerable backlog of excess demand” following the last new EGB syndication in late September.
“To sum up, yes, we will be active already at the start and the first half of the year, but we will also keep some powder dry for later in the year,” he said.
Stix described demand in the ultra-long sector as “certain,” and said Austria remained open to opportunistic issuance there “primarily via secondary market sales of our outstanding century bonds.” However, he ruled out issuing a new century bond in 2026.
New green funding was expected to total €6 billion next year, with medium- and long-term issuance forming the base and around 20% coming from short-term instruments. With Austria’s two outstanding green bonds approaching their target size of €9 billion, a new syndicated green bond was “one of many options” for 2026, he said.
Austria would also revisit the CHF market for financing new green eligible expenditures, provided it offered a cost advantage over euro funding.
Stix said the Bundesschatz would not materially affect bond issuance in 2026, and there were no plans to add new tenors to the program, though it could be adapted to meet the needs of specific customer groups.