The national government’s gross borrowings in January fell 44.62 percent, as both external and domestic financing recorded contractions from the previous year’s level.
According to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), the government’s gross financing in January amounted to P203.15 billion, lower than the P366.86 billion recorded in the same period last year.
Domestic borrowings declined by 21.08 percent to P141.51 billion in January, from the P179.3 billion recorded a year ago.
The government raised P11.51 billion in short-term IOUs in January, while P130 billion was accounted for by fixed rate treasury bonds.
Meanwhile, foreign financing amounted to P61.65 billion, 67.13 percent lower than its year ago level of P187.56 billion.
The government was also able to borrow from foreign sources in January through project and program loans, worth P5.34 billion and P56.3 billion, respectively.
The BTr previously reported that the national government posted a larger budget surplus of P88 billion in January compared to the P45.7 billion recorded a year ago, reflecting an increase of 92.25 percent.
The agency said the fiscal outturn was brought about by a faster 21.15 percent year-over-year increase in revenue collection, outpacing the 10.39 percent expansion in government spending.
In particular, total revenue for the first month of the year rose to P421.8 billion from P348.2 billion last year, driven by higher tax collections which comprised 91.31 percent or P385.2 billion of the total collection.
National government disbursements for January likewise sped up to P333.9 billion, higher relative to last year’s spending of P302.4 billion.
