Gov’t borrowings down 33.2% at end-May

The government’s gross borrowings dropped by a third to P302.6 billion during the first five months due to the lack of big financing like the retail treasury bonds (RTBs) sold in April last year.

From January to May, the combined gross external and domestic borrowings declined 33.2 percent from P452.8 billion in the same five-month period last year, the latest Bureau of the Treasury data showed.

End-May foreign borrowings nonetheless increased to P152.1 billion from P135.2 billion a year ago.

In the first five months, program loans from multilateral lenders and development partners amounted P21.4 billion while project loans reached P15.9 billion.

The government also raised P102.7 billion from the global bond sale in February while P12-billion worth of panda bonds were sold in March.

Local borrowings, meanwhile, were slashed to P150.4 billion as of May from a year ago’s P317.6 billion.

The high base was due to the RTB issuance in April last year, which raised P181.9 billion from small investors.

For this year, the government issued P121.8 billion in RTBs in June.

At end-May, the Treasury sold a net of P45.5 billion in T-bills as well as P104.9 billion in fixed-rate T-bonds.

In the next five years, economic managers will increase foreign borrowing, citing “good” rates being offered by China, Japan and South Korea.

The Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee adjusted the financing program to 65-percent domestic, 35-percent external for 2018 from the 74:26 mix it approved last December.

For 2019 to 2022, the borrowing mix will be 75:25 in favor of domestic sources.