Borrowings of the national government rose last October due to President Marcos’ maiden issuance of offshore commercial bonds, data from the Bureau of the Treasury revealed.
Gross financing of the Marcos administration stood at P182.42 billion in October this year, higher by 25 percent compared with P145.78 billion in the same month in 2021, the Treasury bureau reported.
According to the Treasury, the spike was driven by the P116.93 billion proceeds from government’s foreign commercial borrowing during the month.
To recall, Manila returned to the overseas debt markets for budgetary support last Oct. 5, marking President Marcos’ foray into foreign commercial borrowing.
Marcos’ debut in the overseas debt markets raised $2 billion through a triple-tranche US dollar bond sale that included the $750 million of 25-year green bonds.
On top of that, the government also secured P8.16 billion worth of project loans in October from the country’s development partners.
Meanwhile, domestic borrowings fell from P133.73 billion to P56.73 billion in October.
In the first 10 months of 2022, the government’s total financing reached P2.05 trillion, down 25 percent from P2.748 trillion in the same period last year.
External borrowings decreased by nine percent to P471.65 billion at end-October from P518.71 billion a year ago.
Moreover, local financing went down 29 percent from P2.229 trillion to P1.578 trillion in the previous year.
Last Nov. 3, Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said the Marcos administration plans to borrow more in US dollars, and was looking at tapping the hard-earned savings of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
For this reason, Diokno said the government may launch a US dollar retail treasury bond issue within the first three months of next year.
While the government still finalizes details of the retail dollar bond float, Diokno indicated that the tenor would be at least five-years and may sell more or less $3 billion depending on the demand.
The government’s running debt hit a new record high of P13.517 trillion as of September, equivalent to 63.7 percent of the country's economy or gross domestic product (GDP).
Based on the Bureau of the Treasury data, the latest quarterly debt-to-GDP figure was the highest since 65.7 percent in 2005.