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Philippines: Government borrowings soar 4-fold to P98 billion in November
MANILA, Philippines — The government ramped up its borrowings for the fourth consecutive month, jumping almost four-fold to P98 billion in November, most of which were sourced from the domestic debt market.
Latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed total borrowings for November soared by 266.6 percent to P97.87 billion from just P26.7 billion in obligations in the same month in 2021.
This is the fourth month in a row that the government increased its borrowings after reducing its financing for seven consecutive months.
The increase is also due to the increase in interest rates globally, which forced the country’s central bank to do the same.
The bulk of the total borrowings, at almost 80 percent worth P75.91 billion, were from local lenders. This is a significant jump from the P16.6 billion in the same period in 2021.
Broken down, P98.24 billion was secured through fixed-rate Treasury bonds. At the same time, the government recorded a net redemption of P22.33 billion for Treasury bills in November.
On the other hand, the remaining 20 percent or P21.96 billion was borrowed from foreign sources. External debt also picked up by 118 percent to P21.96 billion.
The entire external financing was made up of project loans.
There were no global and samurai bond as well as program loans from multilateral institutions during the month.
For the 11-month period, borrowings slipped 24 percent to P2.10 trillion from the P2.775 trillion in 2021.
Domestic borrowings dropped 28 percent to P1.61 trillion, while offshore financing also declined seven percent to P493.61 billion.
As of end-November, the government had used up about 95 percent of the borrowing plan it crafted for 2022.
In 2022, the government planned to borrow P2.21 trillion, of which P1.65 trillion would come from domestic sources while the remaining P561.5 billion would be from external sources.
This is 14 percent lower than the P2.58 trillion total borrowings for the whole of 2021.
Source: https://www.philstar.com/business/2023/01/09/2236215/government-borrowings-soar-4-fold-p98-billion-november