Gov’t borrowing accelerates end Sept.

The national government’s financing increased in the first nine-months of the year due to higher borrowings from the domestic market, data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed. Based on the treasury report, the gross borrowings of the national government reached ₱917.28 billion in January to September this year, up by 34 percent compared with ₱683.24 billion in the same period last year.

Of that amount, ₱626.28 billion were sourced from local lenders, which jumped by 57 percent year-on-year from ₱399 billion. Offshore financing also slightly rose by two percent to ₱291 billion from ₱284.24 billion a year ago.

Data from the treasury also revealed that domestic borrowings were mainly composed of fixed rate long-term IOUs with ₱331.9 billion, followed by retails bonds with ₱235.83 billion, and short-dated debt papers with ₱58.55 billion.

On the other hand, the biggest contributors to the end-September overseas financing were the sale of global bonds in January where the state raised ₱78 billion as well as the ₱77.66 billion worth of program loans tapped by the government during the period. The Duterte administration also sold ₱45.26 billion of Samurai bonds in August as well as Euro and Panda bonds in May that generated ₱43.49 billion and ₱18.86 billion, respectively.

Meanwhile, the government’s total projects loans in the first three-quarters already amounted to ₱27.69 billion. But in September alone, the national government’s financing nosedived by 98 percent to a mere ₱1.01 billion from ₱43.98 billion in the same month last year after the treasury settled more maturing obligations than the amount it borrowed.

The government only borrowed ₱10.4 billion through the sale of Treasury bonds in September, lower than the ₱24.85 billion worth settled Treasury bills during the month. For this reason, the treasury registered a net payment of ₱14.45 billion.

Overseas borrowings also declined by 45 percent in September to ₱15.46 billion from ₱29.53 billion in the same month last year.

Last week, the treasury reported that the outstanding debt of the national government stood at ₱7.907 trillion at end-September lower by 0.4 percent compared with ₱9.939 trillion in the previous month.

Of the total debt stock, 66.49 percent were borrowed domestically, while the remaining balance of 33.51 percent were sourced from external markets.

But despite the drop, the end-September level was higher by 0.6 percent against the 2019 target of ₱7.853 trillion set under the 2020 Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing submitted to Congress.

Likewise, the latest debt figure was higher by 10 percent than the ₱7.159 trillion registered in the same month last year.