Government borrowings accelerated in November last year mainly due to increased domestic financing, data from the Bureau of the Treasury revealed.
Gross borrowings of the Marcos administration amounted to P97.87 billion in November alone, up 266 percent from only P26.69 billion in the same month in 2021.
The significant spike was driven by the 457 percent jump of the government’s domestic financing, which stood at P75.91 billion from P16.6 billion a year earlier.
According to the Treasury, the government borrowed P98.24 billion through the sale of long-dated IOUs. This amount, however, was offset by the P22.33 billion net payments for short-term debt papers.
Foreign borrowings also increased by more than double in November from P10.09 billon to P21.96 billion, which all composed of projects loans from the country’s development partners.
The November borrowings brought the government’s 11-month tally to P2.104 trillion, down 24 percent compared with P2.775 trillion in the same period of 2021.
Of that amount, local financing declined 28 percent to P1.61 trillion from P2.246 trillion. External borrowing, on the other hand, dropped six percent from P528.81 billion to P493.61 billion.
In 2023, the Marcos administration plans to borrow P2.207 trillion from domestic and foreign creditors. This is slightly lower compared with P2.212 trillion revised program for last year.
Most of the government’s financing for this year would come from local sources, accounting for 75 percent of the total.
The government is looking at P1.653 trillion worth of domestic borrowings, while the remaining P553.5 billion would come from the foreign lenders.
As of November 2022, the outstanding debt of the national government stood at P13.644 trillion, up by a marginal 0.02 percent from P13.641 trillion in October.
But year-on-year, total debt jumped 14 percent from P11.931 trillion in November 2021.
Domestic debt amounted to P9.43 trillion, P72.73 billion or 0.78 percent higher compared to the end-October 2022 level.
Meanwhile, external debt amounted to P4.22 trillion, P69.58 billion or 1.62 percent lower than the end-October 2022 level due to the P106.98 billion impact of local currency appreciation and P13.38 billion net repayment.