Overall borrowings by the national government decreased by more than half in May this year, data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed.
The Duterte administration’s gross financing went down by 61 percent to P112.2 billion in May from P289.82 billion in the same month last year due to lower borrowings from external creditors.
The national government borrowed only P7.79 billion in May, down 93 percent from P119.31 billion recorded in the same last year.
The huge May 2020 borrowing was largely due to the P118.73 billion worth of global bonds sold, pushing the government’s overall borrowings for the month.
But projects loans from multilateral institutions, on the other hand, accelerated to P7.79 billion this year from only P572 million in May 2020.
Meanwhile, total domestic borrowings amounted to P112.2 billion last May, lower by 61 percent year-on-year from P289.82 billion.
During month, there were P95 billion worth of Treasury bonds issued and P9.4 billion of shorter-dated IOUs sold by the government to local investors.
May gross borrowings brought the national government’s first five-month tally at P1.713 trillion, an increase of 13 percent compared with P1.509 trillion in the same period in 2020.
Domestic financing totaled P1.459 trillion at end-May 2021, higher by 26 percent from P1.152 trillion a year ago.
Foreign borrowings, meanwhile, declined 29 percent to P253 billion from P356.64 billion in the previous year.
The January to May borrowings account for 57 percent of the government’s P3 trillion program for the year to bridge the budget deficit.
Last week, President Duterte raised P3 billion, equivalent to P146 billion, through the sale of global bonds.
The latest a dual tranche offering marked the Philippines’ third commercial borrowing this year after the $2.5 billion sale of a triple-tranche euro-denominated bonds in April, and the $500 million three-year Japanese yen-denominated “Samurai” bonds in March.
At end-April 2021, the national government’s debt burden zoomed 28 percent to P10.991 trillion from P8.6 trillion in the same period last year.
Of the total debt stock, 71.1 percent were domestically borrowed, while 28.9 percent were sourced from external creditors.