Due to the relatively lower borrowings from domestic lenders, the Marcos administration has reduced its gross borrowings to ₱1.33 trillion for the first five months of 2025, a decrease of ₱90 billion from last year’s ₱1.42 trillion.

According to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), the year-to-date figure was 6.3 percent lower than the government’s gross borrowings recorded in the same period last year.

As of end-May, gross borrowings accounted for 52.2 percent of the government’s total planned borrowings of ₱2.55 trillion for the year.

Gross domestic debt stood at ₱1.02 trillion, dropping by 12.8 percent from the government’s gross domestic loans in the previous year at ₱1.17 trillion.

It accounted for 76.7 percent of the total borrowings, falling short of the government’s 80 percent target share of the total borrowings. This year, the government plans to acquire 20 percent of its financing from foreign sources and 80 percent from domestic sources, resulting in an 80:20 borrowing mix.

Notably, the government had zero issuance of retail treasury bonds (RTBs), which it had issued ₱584 billion a year ago. Zero issuance of these more than half-a-trillion bonds was enough to offset the increases in borrowings via sales of other government securities.

A total of ₱629.2 billion was raised through sales of fixed-rate treasury bonds this year, 26.1 percent higher than the ₱499 billion issued a year earlier. The government also increased its borrowings via short-dated treasury bills (T-bills) to ₱92.4 billion from ₱86.8 billion in 2024.

Notably, the government issued fixed-rate treasury notes (FXTNs) worth ₱300 billion in 2025. There was no sale of these debt notes last year. Still, all of these sales were lower than last year’s figures.

Meanwhile, the government increased its borrowings from foreign lenders by 21.5 percent to ₱305.9 billion from ₱251.7 billion a year earlier.

Foreign loans accounted for 22.9 percent of the total borrowings for the five-month period, still exceeding the 20-percent target share of foreign debt.

Notably, global bonds totaling ₱192 billion were settled during the fourth-month period, a massive jump from zero in the same period of the previous year.

Global bonds totaled ₱192 billion during the five-month period, a 66.7-percent increase from ₱115.2 billion a year ago.

Meanwhile, it had trimmed down both its program and project loans in the January–May period. Program loans were reduced to ₱85.2 billion from ₱95.4 billion last year, and project loans were slashed from ₱41 billion last year to ₱28.8 billion this year.

It can be recalled that the Marcos administration’s gross borrowings surged to ₱2.56 trillion in 2024, a 16.9 percent increase from ₱2.19 trillion in the previous year, 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.