Borrowings down 9% in H1

The government’s gross borrowings declined by 9 percent to P460.9 billion in the first half as it sold a smaller volume of retail treasury bonds (RTBs) compared to a year ago.

From January to June, the combined gross domestic and external borrowings decreased from P505.8 billion in the same six-month period last year, the latest Bureau of the Treasury data showed.

End-June domestic borrowings slid to P305 billion from a year ago’s P366.6 billion.

In June, the government raised P121.8 billion from three-year RTBs, lower than the P181.9 billion worth of RTBs sold to small investors in April last year.

At end-June, the Treasury also issued a net of P66.6 billion in T-bills as well as P116.7 billion in fixed-rate T-bonds.

Meanwhile, external borrowings as of June rose to P155.8 billion from P139.2 billion a year ago.

In the first six months, program loans from multilateral lenders and development partners reached P21.4 billion, while project loans amounted to P19.7 billion.

Also, the government raised P102.7 billion from the global bond sale settled in February and sold P12 billion of panda bonds in March.

For 2018, the government’s borrowing mix is 64 percent local, 36 percent foreign. —BEN O. DE VERA