The national government’s gross borrowings in January to October fell 1.52 percent year-on-year as both domestic and external financing declined during the said period.
According to the latest cash operations report posted on the Bureau of the Treasury’s (BTr) website, the government’s gross borrowings in the first 10 months of the year went down to P1.98 trillion from the P2 trillion recorded a year ago.
Gross domestic borrowings for the period accounted for the bigger chunk amounting to P1.52 trillion, down 0.99 percent from the year ago level of P1.53 trillion.
Of the said amount, P1.06 trillion is in fixed rate treasury bonds, while P139.7 billion was accounted for by treasury bills.
In February, the government also raised P252.09 billion from its retail treasury bond offer, while P71.78 billion was raised via retail onshore dollar bonds in October.
Meanwhile, the BTr data showed that gross external borrowings for the period went down by 3.25 percent to P456.31 billion from P471.66 billion a year ago.
Project loans totaled to P105.13 billion while P187.57 billion was from program loans.
The Philippine government also raised P163.61 billion from its global bond issuance in January, when it had a triple-tranche US dollar bond sale.
In October alone, the government recorded gross financing of P225.2 billion, 23.45 percent up from the P182.43 billion in the same month last year.
Gross domestic borrowings amounted to P174.63 billion while foreign borrowings stood at P50.57 billion.
The BTr earlier reported that the national government’s fiscal deficit narrowed sharply in October amid the strong performance of state collections.
The deficit last month fell by 65.27 percent year-on-year to P34.4 billion.
This was underscored by a notable 33.56 percent rise in revenue collections, outpacing government expenditure growth of 8.32 percent.
The total aggregate budget deficit for the 10-month period amounting to P1.02 trillion similarly showed an 8.45 percent contraction from the P1.11 trillion posted in the corresponding period last year and is at 67.88 percent of the P1.5 trillion 2023 program.
