As the pandemic begins to slowdown and the economy further reopens, the national government’s borrowing requirement was significantly reduced in April mainly due to less financing coming from overseas lenders.

Data from the Bureau of the Treasury on Sunday, June 5, showed that the government borrowed only P101.26 billion last April, way below compared with the P271.95 billion gross financing recorded in the same month last year.

According to the Treasury, more than half of the borrowings were from local creditors, amounting to P66.38 billion. This is 37 percent lower than the P106.15 billion a year earlier.

Most of the locally borrowed money were raised through the sale of long-dated IOU reaching P100.37 billion. The amount, however, was offset by the P34 billion net payment for short-term debt papers.

Likewise, foreign borrowings declined during the month by 79 percent from P165.8 billion in April 2021 to only P34.88 billion.

Of that amount, P28.55 billion were raised through the sale of Samurai bonds, while P6.33 billion were project loans from the country’s development partners.

Meanwhile, the national government’s total borrowings from January to April 2022 amounted to P1.183 trillion, down 28 percent compared with P1.653 trillion in the same period last year.

Last week, the Treasury bureau had reported that the government’s debt stock continued to rise, reaching at P12.679 trillion as of April 2022, from P10.991-trillion in the same month last year

The bureau said the rise was driven mainly by additional borrowings from both local and foreign creditors as well as the weakening peso against the US dollar.

The end-April debt load is also more than the P12.679-trillion recorded in the previous month.

Of the total debt stock, 70 percent were domestically borrowed, while the remaining 30 percent are held by foreign banks.

Earlier, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said President Duterte’s successor should avoid accumulating additional debt and prioritize policies that will entice more economic activity.

Dominguez said the debt problem incurred during the more than two-year Covid-19 crisis will be the biggest challenge for the next administration.

The Department of Finance has unveiled its Fiscal Consolidation and Resource Mobilization Plan that aims to address the government’s ballooning pandemic-induced debts, which amounted to P3.2 trillion.

The fiscal consolidation plan includes the deferral of income tax reductions scheduled for individual taxpayers and removal of certain value-added tax (VAT) exemptions for senior citizens and persons with disabilities.

Incoming Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, however, said he would quest for consensus among lawmakers and members of the executive department before pursuing the Marcos administration’s fiscal consolidation program.