Government borrowings hit P2 trillion in August

The national government borrowings hit the P2 trillion mark as of August 2020 as the administration continues to source funds for its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the data from the Bureau of the Treasury, the total government financing increased by 202 percent from January to August in 2020 at P2.469 trillion from P816.27 trillion in the same period in 2019.

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The majority of the borrowings came from the local market with P1.96 trillion, including P447.8 billion long-dated IOUs, P827.12 billion retail treasury bonds, P300 million loan from the central bank, and P385 billion Treasury bills.

The domestic financing on end-August was 263 percent higher than the P540.72 billion in 2019.

The government borrowings from foreign creditors also increased by 85 percent at P509.7 billion as of August compared with P275.55 billion last year.

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Of the total offshore borrowings, P306.53 billion was raised through program loans, P67.33 billion came from the euro debt markets, while P118.73 billion were proceeds from global bonds.

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Government borrowings hit P2 trillion in August

The National government also borrowed P17.09 billion in project loans during the period.

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In August alone, the Duterte administration borrowed P612.91 billion from domestic and foreign creditors, 701 percent higher than P76.52 billion in the same month last year.

The local financing stood increased by 1,869 percent at P584.37 billion compared with only P29.67 billion last year. The bulk of the funds were retail treasury bonds with P516 billion, followed by short-term debt notes worth P38.03 billion and bonds with P30 billion.

Meanwhile, foreign government borrowings in August decreased by 39 percent to P28.54 billion from P46.85 billion in 2019. There were P2.04 billion project loans and P26.5 billion worth of program loans release.

The national government plans to borrow P3 trillion from domestic and foreign creditors to fund the administration’s fiscal deficit ceiling of P1.815 trillion.

However, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said last week that the government could still borrow less than planned for the rest of 2020 should the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Customs continue to exceed their downscaled collection targets.