Government loans from local and foreign banks increased by more than double in July this year.
Data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed that the Duterte administration’s gross borrowings jumped 150 percent last July to P337.36 billion from P134.53 billion in the same month last year.
According to the treasury, the uptick was mainly due to the $3 billion sale of US dollar denominated global bonds, equivalent to P146.17 billion.
To recall, the Philippines completed its dual-tranche global bond offering in late June. The 25-year tranche raised $2.25 billion, while the 10.5-year tranche generated $750 million.
The the government’s commercial borrowing pushed up foreign financing during the month to P156.79 billion, 131 percent higher compared with P67.69 billion a year earlier.
The national government also booked P10.62 billion worth of project loans in July.
Meanwhile, domestic borrowing also registered a hefty jump of 170 percent to P180.36 billion from P66.84 billion in the previous year.
In July, the government issued Treasury bonds amounting to P208.86 billion, and made a net payment of P28.5 billion to retire some of its outstanding short-dated IOUs.
In the first seven-months of the year, the national government’s total borrowings already hit P2.27 trillion, an increase of 22 percent compared with P1.857 trillion in the same period in 2020.
Based on the treasury data, financing from domestic banks rose 33 percent from P1.376 trillion to P1.828 trillion.
Of that total amount, long-dated debt papers reached P779.86 billion, while borrowings from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas cornered P540 billion. There were also P463.32 billion in Premyo bonds and P45.1 billion worth of Treasury bills.
Gross borrowings, meanwhile, from foreign lenders declined by 8.2 percent to P441.73 billion from P481.15 billion last year.
In 2021, the Duterte administration is planning to borrow P3 trillion to fund more than half of the government’s spending plan and plug the ballooning budget deficit amid the prolonged pandemic.
As of July, the national government’s debt hit a record high of P11.61 trillion.
Based on the data from the treasury, the public debt increased 26.7 percent from P9.164 trillion in the same month last year, or an addition of P2.446 trillion in the past 12-months.
Of the total debt stock, 69.9 percent was sourced domestically, while the remaining 30.1 percent were foreign borrowings.