The Marcos administration slashed its gross borrowings to ₱745.1 billion in the first quarter of 2025, down ₱415 billion from last year’s ₱1.16 trillion, mainly due to the absence of a retail treasury bond (RTB) issuance during the period, which had significantly boosted borrowings in early 2024.

According to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), the first-quarter figure was 35.8 percent lower than the government gross recorded in the same period last year.

Gross borrowings for the January-to-March period accounted for 29.2 percent of the government’s total planned borrowings of ₱2.55 trillion for the year.

Gross domestic debt stood at ₱450.8 billion, significantly dropping by 52.9 percent from the government’s gross domestic loans in the previous year at P956.6 billion

It accounted for 60.5 percent of the total borrowings, falling short of the government’s 80-percent target share from the total borrowings. This year, the government plans to acquire 20 percent of its financing from foreign sources, and 80 percent from domestic sources, thus an 80:20 borrowing mix.

Notably, there was no sale of RTBs in the first quarter of the year, contrasting starkly with the RTBs that the government had awarded in the previous year, which were valued at ₱584.9 billion. Despite the loan increases from other sources, this over-half-a-trillion worth of debt paper drove the massive difference from last year’s figures.

Likewise, the government reduced its borrowings from short-dated treasury bills (T-bills), which stood at ₱48.4 billion, from ₱61.7 billion a year ago.

Meanwhile, the BTr raised P402.4 billion from fixed-rate treasury bonds (T-bonds), 29.8 percent higher than the P310 billion it borrowed in the first quarter of 2024.

As for the foreign loans, the government borrowed ₱294.3 billion as of end-March, which accounted for 39.5 percent of total, exceeding the 20-percent target share of foreign debt. This jumped by 42 percent from last year’s P207.3 billion gross foreign debt.

Notably, global bonds totaling ₱192 billion were settled during the quarter, a massive jump from zero in the first quarter of the previous year.

Meanwhile, it had trimmed down its program loans from P95.4 billion a year ago to P85.2 billion in the first quarter.

It likewise reduced the value of its project loans to P17.2 billion from P21.8 billion a year earlier.

It can be recalled that the Marcos administration’s gross borrowings surged to ₱2.56 trillion in 2024, jumping by 16.9 percent, from ₱2.19 trillion in the previous year, a growth driven by a sharp rise in both domestic and foreign debt.

Last year’s total borrowings exceeded the administration’s borrowing plan by ₱100 billion. It was 4.07 percent higher than the programmed ₱2.46 trillion for the year.