RP gets $9.3-billion official development assistance in third quarter

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines has received $9.3 billion worth of official development assistance (ODA) as of the third quarter of the year, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) reported yesterday.

This amount financed 94 loans consisting of $6.8 billion or 75 percent in project loans and $2.23 billion or 25 percent of program loans, NEDA director Roderick Planta said.

The availment rate which is the cumulative actual disbursements as a percentage of cumulative scheduled disbursement for ODA increased by one percentage point to 80 percent this year from 79 percent a year ago.

In terms of funding source, availment rate is highest with the Asian Development Bank at 90 percent, followed by the Japan Interational Cooperation Agency and China at 80.83 percent and 78.39 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, NEDA also reported that the disbursement level increased to $993.61 million for the third quarter of 2009, Planta said. He said this was 63 percent higher than the disbursement level that reached $610.67 million in the same period last year.

The significant increase in disbursements was largely attributed to the single tranche release of two program loans: $150 million for the Asian Development Bank-funded (ADB) Governance in Justice Sector Reform Program Subprogram II, and $200 million for the World Bank-funded (WB) Global Food Crisis Response Program Development Policy Operations.

The biggest loans disbursed were funded by JICA with $356.05 million, followed by the World Bank and the ADB with $304.62 million and $172.38 million, respectively.

Disbursement level is the actual amount of disbursements from all ODA loans for the period January to September 2009.