Gov't borrows lower in January
Published Mar 27, 2023 12:56 am
The Marcos administration borrowed less from creditors in the first month of the year, data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed.
Gross financing of the national government amounted to P366.86 billion in January, 16 percent lower compared with P439.13 billion in the same month last year, document from the Treasury showed.
Of that amount, P187.56 billion was borrowed from external sources. This is double than a year ago’s P93.58 billion.
According to the Treasury, program and project loans from the country’s development partners reached P18.22 billion and P5.73 billion, respectively.
The government also raised P163.6 billion from the sale of Global bonds during the month.
On the other hand, local borrowings declined by 48 percent to P187.56 billion in January from P345.55 billion a year earlier.
To recall, Duterte administration borrowed P300 billion from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in January last year to support the government’s war chest against the pandemic.
In January, the Marcos administration raised P161.67 billion through the sale of long-dated IOUs and P17.62 billion from short-term debt papers.
In 2022, the national government borrowed at a much lower amount than initially estimated last year on the back of robust revenue haul of the tax agencies.
Total borrowings amounted to P2.163 trillion from January to December 2022, below the P2.212 trillion program for the year.
At the same time, the government also reduced its borrowing by 16 percent against P2.579 trillion in full-year 2021.
In 2023, the Marcos administration is planning to borrow P2.207 trillion from offshore and local banks to help bridge the government’s projected budget deficit amounting to P1.1453 trillion.
As of January 2023, the national government’s outstanding debt stock stood at P13.698 trillion, up by 14 percent from P12.029 trillion a year ago. Month-on-month, it also rose by 2.1 percent from P13.418 trillion last December.
Based on the Treasury data, 68.5 percent of the total debt portfolio of the government were domestic borrowings, while 31.5 percent was sourced obverses.