The government’s gross borrowings in the first quarter of the year jumped by 44.4 percent, following the issuance of retail treasury bonds (RTBs) in March, data posted by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) on its website showed.
The BTr data showed that gross financing in the first three months of the year rose to P1.38 trillion from P956.72 billion a year ago.
Gross domestic borrowings accounted for a large chunk of the amount with P1.3 trillion, jumping from the previous year’s level of P810 billion by 60.74 percent.
Of the said amount, P463.32 billion came from the RTBs issued in March.
The total issue size of the three-year RTBs consisted of P411.8 billion in new subscriptions and P51.5 billion more from the bond exchange program.
Meanwhile, P540 billion was accounted for by the reavailment of the short-term loan facility from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in January.
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.
Fixed-rate treasury bonds accounted for P199 billion of the domestic borrowings in January to March, while P99.76 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 45.84 percent to P79.45 billion from P146.69 billion a year ago.
Project loans totaled to P17 billion while the remaining P62.44 billion was from program loans.
In March alone, total gross borrowings went up by 65.87 percent to P617.3 billion.
Of the said amount, P584.12 billion was from local lenders while P33.17 billion was from offshore financing.
