The national government’s gross borrowings in January to September fell 2.28 percent year-on-year as domestic 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 nine months of the year went down to P1.78 trillion from P1.82 trillion recorded a year ago.
Gross domestic borrowings for the period accounted for the bigger chunk amounting to P1.38 trillion, down 6.86 percent from the year ago level of P1.48 trillion.
Of the said amount, P965.83 billion is in fixed rate treasury bonds, while P126.85 billion was accounted for by treasury bills.
In February, the government also raised P283.76 billion from its 5.5-year retail treasury bond offer.
Meanwhile, the BTr data showed gross external borrowings for the period went up 17.28 percent to P405.74 billion from P345.96 billion a year ago.
Project loans totaled to P97.08 billion while P145.06 billion was from program loans.
The government also raised P163.61 billion from its global bond issuance in January, when it had a triple-tranche US dollar bond sale.
In September alone, the government recorded gross financing of P103.95 billion, 76.63 percent down from the P444.87 billion in the same month last year.
Gross domestic borrowings amounted to P92.07 billion while foreign borrowings stood at P11.18 billion.
The BTr earlier reported that the national government’s budget deficit as of end-September fell below program by 11.11 percent.
According to the BTr, the fiscal deficit narrowed to P983.5 billion in the first nine months of the year, down by 2.89 percent year-on-year, while also lower than the P1.1 trillion target.
The year-to-date deficit figure is only 66 percent of the P1.5 trillion full-year program, which the BTr said was due to higher revenue and lower expenditure performance than programmed for the period.
For the month of September, however, the budget deficit widened to P250.9 billion, higher by 39.6 percent compared to last year’s P179.8 billion.
The fiscal outturn for the period was underpinned by an 8.06 percent year-over-year acceleration in expenditures coupled with an 11.57 percent decrease in government receipts.