Gov’t borrowings down 97%

Government borrowings declined 97 percent to P176.31 billion in the first four months of the year as the Aquino administration continued to borrow from domestic sources amid low interest rates and strong liquidity in the market.

The bulk of the total borrowings or P170.19 billion came from domestic sources while the remaining P6.12 billion came from foreign lenders, the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) reported yesterday.

In April alone, total borrowings reached P50.12 billion or more than double the P22.37 billion borrowed in the same month a year earlier. Of that amount, P47.23 billion came from the domestic market, largely consisting of fixed-rate Treasury bonds (P36.03 billion) and Treasury bills (P11.2 billion).

The government is on track of its goal to trim debt in proportion to gross domestic product (GDP) to 48 percent by the end of the year on sustained liability management and robust economic expansion.

Debt-to-GDP ratio gauges the sustainability of state liabilities with a lower ratio indicating that the country has more than enough resources to settle its debts.

The government earlier reported that debt eased to 48.9 percent of GDP in the first quarter, down from 51.5 percent at the end of 2012.

Sustained efforts to manage liability has decreased General Government (GG) debt ratio at 40.6 percent in 2012 from 41.4 percent in 2011, the lowest since the Philippines adopted the measurement in 1998, the Department of Finance (DOF) said.

The foreign component of the consolidated GG debt also went down to 44.1 percent last year from 50.2 percent in 2011.