PH gross borrowings surged to P367B in Sep
Gross borrowings of the Marcos administration more than tripled in September as external debt soared.
Data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed the combined gross domestic and external borrowings of the national government amounted to P367.18 billion in September, surging by 255.6 percent from P103.25 billion in the same month last year.
Also, the state’s gross financing for the January-September period jumped by 31.4 percent year-on-year to P2.3 trillion from P1.75 trillion.
The government borrows money from lenders to bridge the gap between its budget and expenditures.
Based on the latest cash operations report of the BTr, local borrowings increased by 57.7 percent to P145.2 billion in September.
This included P25.2 billion in short-term financing via Treasury bills and P120 billion in long-dated Treasury bonds.
Since the beginning of the year, domestic borrowings grew by 33.6 percent to P1.8 trillion from the P1.34 trillion in the same period last year.
On the other hand, gross external debt ballooned by 1,885.7 percent to P221.98 billion in September from last year’s P11.18 billion.
Fresh foreign borrowings incurred in September included P8.35 billion in project loans, P72.65 billion in program loans and P140.99 billion in global bonds.
In August, the Marcos administration returned to the international bond market with a triple-tranche, $2.5-billion US dollar-denominated bond offering that was issued at rates that Finance Secretary Ralph Recto described as “very affordable.”
The government capitalized on lower benchmark yields, which were influenced by softer inflation data and the US Federal Reserve’s more dovish stance. This led investors to anticipate rate cuts at the Fed’s September meeting and to consider the potential magnitude of those cuts.
Thus, for the last three months of this year, the government aims to borrow P310 billion from the domestic market, down by more than half of the P630 billion borrowing program in the third quarter.
