Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani has denied Putrajaya is raising RM2.5 billion through bonds to help 1MDB pay its debt to Abu Dhabi's International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC).

He said such allegations were "totally baseless".

"That bond has nothing to do with 1MDB. It is a normal government bond. Every year, we have a deficit budget and we need to finance government expenditure through bond issuance. That's it."