The national government’s gross borrowings in the first half of the year rose by 12.21 percent due to higher domestic borrowings versus the year ago level, data released by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed.
According to the latest cash operations report posted on the BTr website, the government’s gross borrowings totaled to P1.93 trillion, up versus the P1.72 trillion raised a year ago.
Gross domestic borrowings accounted for a large chunk amounting to P1.65 trillion, 25.89 percent up from the year ago level of P1.31 trillion.
Of the said amount, P463.32 billion came from the retail treasury bonds (RTBs) issued in March.
The total issue size of the three-year RTBs consisted of P411.8 billion in new subscriptions and P51.5 billion more from the bond exchange program.
The data also showed that P540 billion was accounted for by the reavailment of the short-term loan facility from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in January.
Meanwhile, P571 billion of the domestic borrowings in January to June was in the form of fixed-rate treasury bonds, while P73.6 billion was from the issuance of treasury bills.
The BTr data also showed that gross external borrowings for the period declined 31.08 percent to P284.95 billion from P413.45 billion a year ago.
Project loans totaled to P43.71 billion while P95.08 billion was from program loans.
The Philippine government also raised P121.97 billion from euro bonds and P24.19 billion from its samurai bonds issuances, both in April.
In June alone, total gross borrowings amounted to P167.2 billion, 21.59 percent down from the P213.23 billion recorded in the same period a year ago.
Of the said amount, P135.3 billion was from local lenders while P31.91 billion was from offshore financing.
