The government’s gross borrowings as of end-February amounted to P764.23 billion, data posted by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) on its website showed.
The BTr data showed that gross financing in the first two months of the year rose by 30.73 percent from the year ago level of P584.57 billion.
Gross domestic borrowings accounted for a large chunk of the amount with P717.96 billion, jumping from the previous year’s level of P446.93 billion by 60.64 percent.
Of the said amount, P540 billion was accounted for by the reavailment of the short-term loan facility from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
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.
Meanwhile, P120 billion of the domestic borrowings in January to February was in the form of fixed-rate treasury bonds, while P57.96 billion was from the issuance of treasury bills.
On the other hand, the BTr data showed that gross external borrowings for the period declined by 66.38 percent to P46.27 billion from P137.64 billion a year ago.
Project loans totaled to P12.85 billion while the remaining P33.42 billion was from program loans. – Angela Celis
