The national government’s gross borrowings as of end-April rose by 35.59 percent, largely due to higher domestic borrowings versus last year, and amid the issuance of euro and samurai bonds last month, 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 P1.65 trillion, up versus the P1.22 trillion raised a year ago.
Gross domestic borrowings accounted for a large chunk amounting to P1.41 trillion, 43.38 percent up from the year ago level of P982.13 billion.
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.
Meanwhile, P540 billion was accounted for by the reavailment of the short-term loan facility from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in January.
This is the second time the BSP has extended a P540 billion provisional advance to the government, with the first one approved in October last year.
Considered as the lender of last resort, the BSP may make direct provisional advances with or without interest to the national government to finance expenditures authorized in its annual appropriation, pursuant to Section 89 of Republic Act No. 7653 or the New Central Bank Act.
At the onset of the lockdown measures imposed in March 2020 to combat the coronavirus pandemic, the BSP also lent P300 billion to the national government under a repurchase agreement.
Of the domestic borrowings in January to April, P294 billion was in the form of fixed-rate treasury bonds, while P110.91 billion was from the issuance of treasury bills.
The BTr data also showed that gross external borrowings for the period inched up by 3.34 percent to P245.25 billion from P237.33 billion a year ago.
Project loans totaled to P26.97 billion while P72.12 billion was from program loans.
The Philippine government also successfully returned to the international capital markets as it raised P121.97 billion from euro bonds and P24.19 billion from its samurai bonds issuances, both in April.
In April alone, total gross borrowings went up by 3.5 percent to P271.95 billion.
Of the said amount, P106.15 billion was from local lenders while P165.8 billion was from offshore financing.
