The national government’s gross borrowings in January to September jumped by 31.42 percent year-on-year as both foreign and domestic financing registered double-digit increases.
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 rose to P2.3 trillion from the P1.75 trillion recorded a year ago.
Gross domestic borrowings for the period accounted for the bigger chunk amounting to P1.8 trillion, up 33.55 percent from the year ago level of P1.34 trillion.
Of the said amount, P1.02 trillion is in fixed rate treasury bonds, while P186.92 billion was accounted for by treasury bills.
Also, P584.86 billion was raised in February through the retail treasury bonds offer.
Meanwhile, the BTr data showed that gross external borrowings for the period went up by 24.33 percent to P504.45 billion from P405.74 billion a year ago.
Project loans totaled to P75.06 billion while P173.15 billion was from program loans.
The government also raised P115.25 billion from its dual-tranche global dollar bond offering in May as well as P140.99 billion in September from its second dollar-denominated global bond offer.
For the month alone, the government recorded gross financing of P367.18 billion, 255.64 percent up from the year ago level of P103.25 billion.
Gross domestic borrowings amounted to P145.2 billion while foreign borrowings stood at P221.98 billion.
The BTr earlier reported that the national government’s budget deficit as of end-September fell within the deficit ceiling for the nine-month period as revenues outperformed its program faster than expenditures.
The budget deficit stood at P970.2 billion in January to September, 9.08 percent below the program of P1.07 trillion.
Revenues for the period surpassed the target by 4.53 percent, whereas expenditures was higher than program by 1.09 percent.
Year-on-year, the nine-month budget deficit narrowed by 1.35 percent compared to the P983.5 billion budget shortfall in January to September 2023.
Revenues also grew at a faster pace year-on-year as it posted a 16.04 percent expansion, while expenditures grew by 11.56 percent.
In September alone, the deficit widened by 8.9 percent to P273.3 billion from last year’s P250.9 billion, as the increase of nominal value of expenditures outpaced the increase in revenues.
