Gov’t borrowings swell to P 2.56T

The amount borrowed by the national government during the first nine months swelled to P2.56 trillion, already five-sixths of its borrowing program for the entire year.

Gross domestic borrowings from January to September amounted to P2.01 trillion, while foreign-sourced financing reached P550.3 billion, the latest Bureau of the Treasury data showed.

To finance the fight against COVID-19, the government had programmed to borrow a record P3 trillion—P2.22 trillion from local sources on top of P785.6 billion in external borrowings—this year.

The outstanding debt will reach a high of P10.16 trillion by year’s end, jacking up the debt-to-gross domestic product ratio to 53.9 percent in 2020 from a record-low of 39.6 percent last year.

As of September, the government issued a net of P390.3 billion in short-dated treasury bills on top of P492.9 billion in fixed-rate treasury bonds.

Two retail treasury bond issuances to small investors in February and August raised P827.1 billion.

The end-September financing also included the Treasury’s P300-billion repurchase agreement with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), which was settled last month.

This month, the BSP approved its fresh P540-billion lending support to the national government as the pandemic raged on.

Domestic borrowings will account for the bulk or 74 percent of the total financing program for 2020 as the government took advantage of a very liquid market and low interest rates.

The nine-month foreign borrowings included P344.9 billion in program loans as well as P19.3 billion in project loans obtained from bilateral and multilateral sources.

Also, the Philippines sold P67.3 billion in euro bonds last February and P118.7 billion in US dollar-denominated global bonds last May.

The government will no longer sell yen-denominated samurai and yuan-denominated panda bonds following the BSP’s advance. —Ben O. de Vera INQ