Philippines borrowings down 7 percent in August

MANILA, Philippines — The Marcos administration slightly reduced its borrowings by seven percent to P124 billion in August, with the bulk still coming from the domestic debt market.

Data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed that total borrowings in August reached P124.06 billion as compared to the P133.34 billion in August 2022.

During the month, borrowings from local lenders went down by 11 percent to P117.37 billion from P132.02 billion secured in the same period last year.

The huge chunk or 94 percent of the domestic borrowings at P110.24 billion was from fixed rate Treasury bonds.

The government also borrowed the remaining P7.14 billion from short-term T-bills.

During the same month last year, the government borrowed more T-bonds at P140 billion, but it managed to have a net redemption of P7.98 billion in T-bills.

In terms of external debt, the Treasury jacked up its borrowings by five-fold to P6.68 billion from just P1.32 billion from foreign sources during the month of August.

The entire external financing was made up of various project loans.

For the eight-month period, borrowings have jumped by 22 percent to P1.68 trillion from the P1.38 trillion sourced in January to August 2022.

As of end-August, domestic borrowings picked up by 23 percent to P1.28 trillion while offshore financing increased 17 percent to P394.56 billion.

This means that the government already used up 76 percent of the borrowing plan it crafted for the year at P2.21 trillion.