Borrowings...

On the other hand, gross foreign borrowings in the same period hit P279.6 billion, up by 10.5 percent from last year’s P253.04 billion.

Over 40 percent of the amount of foreign borrowings, or P117.33 billion, came from the sale of multitranche dollar-denominated global bonds.

Other sources of gross foreign borrowings include program loans (P89.08 billion), multitranche samurai bonds (P28.55 billion), and a project loan (P44.66 billion).

For May alone, the national government paid more debts than it incurred for the month, resulting in a net payment of P258.97 billion.

This was mainly due to the net payment in gross domestic borrowings, particularly the P300-billion short-term loan from BSP and P85.89 billion in T-bills.

These payments were partly offset by the government’s borrowings through its sale of Fixed Rate Treasury Bonds during the month, amounting to P115.21 billion.

Gross foreign borrowings, meanwhile, jumped by 50.3 percent to P11.71 billion from P7.79 billion. For this year, the government had set to borrow a total of P2.2 trillion.

As of end-may, the national government’s outstanding debt dipped to P12.5 trillion from a record-high of P12.76 trillion as of end-april due to the repayment of its short-term interest loan from BSP.

The national government’s debtto-gdp ratio as of the year’s first quarter rose to 63.5 percent, the highest since the country’s debt as a percentage of the economy hit 65.7 percent in 2005 under the Arroyo administration.

Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said they expect the country’s debt-to-gdp ratio to reach 61.8 percent by the end of the year and to taper down until it reaches 52.5 percent in 2028, the end of the term of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr.

While Diokno said they are not in a hurry to quickly return to the country’s historic low pre-pandemic debt ratio of 39.6 percent, their strategy, he explained, is to prioritize supporting economic growth in order for the country to outgrow its debt.