Gov’t borrowings down 5.3% to P27.7B in April

The national government’s borrowings slightly slid year-on-year in April, with a total of P27.7 billion sourced from domestic and foreign lenders, the latest Bureau of the Treasury data showed.

The amount borrowed last April was 5.3-percent lower than the P29.3 billion in the same month last year.

In April alone, gross external borrowings hit P25.3 billion or almost five times bigger than the P5.2 billion sourced from multilateral lenders’ program and project loans last year.

Gross domestic borrowings last April, meanwhile, reached only P2.5 billion, 89.8-percent lower than the P24.2 billion in the same month of 2014.

As of end-April, total government borrowings stood at P128.6 billion, up 1.8 percent from P126.4 billion during the first four months of last year.

External borrowings as of end-April rose to P79.7 billion from P55.3 billion in 2014.

The Philippine government last January borrowed offshore through the sale of $2 billion worth of 25-year Republic of the Philippines or ROP bonds at a record-low coupon of 3.95 percent. Ben O. de Vera