The national government’s planned borrowings for the third quarter of 2025 were reduced by ₱45 billion to ₱690 billion from ₱735 billion in the previous quarter, with a major downscaling in the sales of long-term debt securities.

Signed by National Treasurer Sharon Almanza, two separate announcements were released by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) on June 26 and 27, showing the 6.1-percent decrease in the government’s borrowing plan for the upcoming quarter.

From July to September, the government intends to borrow ₱325 billion in Treasury bills (T-bills), matching the value it planned to borrow throughout the second quarter. T-bills will comprise 47.1 percent of the total third-quarter debt offerings.

Meanwhile, Treasury bonds (T-bonds), or long-term government debt, will account for the larger share, at 52.9 percent, with planned borrowings of ₱365 billion. This is ₱45 billion or 12 percent lower than the second quarter’s ₱410 billion, reversing the same-value increase seen in the previous quarter.

Domestic borrowing for the July-to-September period represents 27.1 percent of the government’s total planned borrowing of ₱2.55 trillion for 2025.

To maintain the 80:20 domestic-to-external borrowing mix, external debt should be approximately ₱138 billion, given the planned ₱690 billion total domestic borrowing and ₱919 billion domestic ceiling.

To recall, the Marcos administration’s gross borrowings surged to ₱2.56 trillion a year earlier, a ₱370 billion or nearly 17 percent increase from 2023’s ₱2.19 trillion. This exceeded the planned ₱2.46 trillion by ₱100 billion, or over four percent.

Domestic debt alone jumped by ₱290 billion or almost 18 percent to ₱1.92 trillion in 2024. While this represented 75 percent of total borrowings, slightly above 2023’s 74.5 percent, it still fell short of the 80:20 target.