Foreign borrowings jacked up gov’t debt stock by 75% in Nov
The Marcos administration’s gross borrowings surged in November, with growth in foreign loans outpacing that of domestic debt as the state moved into the penultimate month of its annual fundraising drive to plug its budget hole.
Latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed that total gross borrowings jumped 74.5 percent to P113.53 billion in November compared with the same month last year.
This brought 11-month borrowings to P2.59 trillion, putting the government 99 percent of the way toward its P2.6-trillion target for 2025.
The surge in November IOUs came as external financing more than doubled to P35.53 billion, nearly 120 percent higher than last year’s P16.16 billion.
Domestic debt up 60%
Still, consistent with the government’s 80:20 borrowing strategy favoring domestic sources, domestic borrowings totaled P78 billion in November, up almost 60 percent from a year earlier and accounting for the bulk of the month’s financing needs.
Domestic borrowings consisted of P70 billion in Treasury bonds and P8 billion in Treasury bills.
Year-to-date, domestic debt totaled P2.1 trillion, marking a 10 percent increase from last year and already reaching the government’s P2.1-trillion domestic borrowing program for 2025.
11-month external debt
Meanwhile, external debt from January to November totaled P484.8 billion, up 16.7 percent from last year. This represented 99 percent of the P488.17-billion external borrowing program.
The government’s borrowing program aims to plug a projected P1.6-trillion budget deficit, equivalent to roughly 5.5 percent of gross domestic product. The drive is expected to push the debt stock to P17.36 trillion by year’s end.
This November, the budget deficit stood at P157.6 billion, down 26 percent from the same month last year. The 11-month shortfall now totals P1.26 trillion, or 80.9 percent of the full-year target.
