The Philippines is the World Bank's fifth-biggest borrower for the second-straight year, coinciding with the first two years in office of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.

The World Bank's latest Annual Report disclosed on Oct. 18 showed that in fiscal year 2024 covering the period July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, the Philippines borrowed a total of $2.35 billion across four loans from the Washington-based multilateral lender.

The total amount of loans secured by the country during fiscal year 2024 was slightly higher than the previous year's $2.336 billion.

In fiscal year 2024, the only four countries that exceeded the Philippines' borrowings from the World Bank were war-torn Ukraine ($4.086 billion), Türkiye ($3.191 billion), Indonesia ($3.028 billion), and India ($2.943 billion).

These five countries were also the top borrowers in fiscal year 2023 or from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023, although India and Ukraine switched positions.

As the Marcos Jr. administration borrowed heavily from the World Bank during its first two years, the lender "helped the Philippines protect itself against interest-rate volatility by fixing the interest rate on almost its entire IBRD [International Bank for Reconstruction and Development] US dollar portfolio."

Also, "the Philippines became the first country to benefit from the Rapid Response Option in the World Bank Group's new Crisis Preparedness and Response Toolkit, allowing it to immediately reallocate a portion of our financing to provide the country and its people with what they need when a crisis strikes," the lender said.

The World Bank is referring to the $500-million Disaster Risk Management and Climate Development Policy Loan (DPL) with a Catastrophe Deferred-Drawdown Option (DDO) it approved in November of last year.

Also among the World Bank's loans for the Philippines in fiscal year 2024 was the $600-million First Digital Transformation Development Policy Financing, which, the lender noted, will "promote the digital transformation of government and digital infrastructure policies, expand financial inclusion through digital finance, and stimulate the growth of digital services."

This loan green-lit in September last year "will help digitalize government operations and service delivery, foster competition in digital infrastructure markets, and encourage the adoption of digital payments and financial services," the World Bank said.

The two other Philippine loans in fiscal year 2024 were the $500-million Infrastructure for Safer and Resilient Schools as well as the $750-million Second Sustainable Recovery DPL, both approved in June of this year.

World Bank documents reviewed by Manila Bulletin showed these new loans will be repaid during a period ranging between 2034 and 2052. The Philippine government has yet to sign the agreement for the Infrastructure for Safer and Resilient Schools project, hence the loan is still inactive and its proceeds unspent.

In the current 2025 fiscal year that began on July 1, 2024, the World Bank last Oct. 10 approved the $287.24-million Digital Infrastructure Project, which would provide better internet access to over 20 million Filipinos.

Seven more World Bank loans are forthcoming: the $750-million Second Digital Transformation DPL; $700-million Pagkilos - Locally-Led Climate Action; $600-million First Energy Transition and Climate Resilience DPL; $496-million Health System Resilience Project; $456-million Mindanao Transport Connectivity Improvement Project; $250-million Water Supply and Sanitation Project; and $67.34-million Civil Service Modernization Project.

Also, the World Bank said in an Oct. 18 statement that its Resilient Philippines project to be rolled out with the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (UN-FAO) is among the beneficiaries of $418 million in new grants approved by the Pandemic Fund's governing board last week. The World Bank Group hosts the Pandemic Fund, the first multilateral financing that helps low- and middle-income countries better prepare for future pandemics.

To recall, the Philippines was the World Bank's No. 1 borrower in fiscal year 2021 or from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, with eight loans totaling $3.068 billion.

Those concessional loans had been primarily spent to fight Covid-19, which inflicted unto the Philippines the largest pandemic-induced output gap in the region.

In fiscal year 2022 coinciding with the Duterte administration's last year in office, the Philippines borrowed a lower $1.578 billion, the seventh-biggest among the World Bank's clients that year.

As Manila Bulletin first reported, the World Bank's board is expected to approve by December of this year the lender's Philippines Country Partnership Framework for 2025-2028—the financing program as the country climbs to upper middle-income status by late 2025 or early 2026.

This forthcoming lending plan will coincide with the second half of the Marcos Jr. administration and a new Philippine president in mid-2028.

The World Bank's emerging country partnership framework for the Philippines in the next four years targets four high-level outcomes: inclusive growth and jobs; strong human capital; resilient communities; and environmental sustainability.

Once the Philippines becomes an upper-middle income country, it will eventually lose access to concessional interest rates slapped on official development assistance (ODA) or cheap loans extended by multilateral lenders like the World Bank, the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), as well as its bilateral development partners such as Japan and South Korea, among others.