Govt gross borrowings soar to P259.3B
THE national government's gross borrowings ballooned to nearly P260 billion in May as both foreign and domestic debt surged, latest Bureau of the Treasury data showed.
Based on the bureau's latest cash operations report, overall borrowings totaled P259.33 billion for the month, up 76.7 percent from P146.78 billion a year earlier. It also surged from the P89.20 billion recorded in April.
Year to date, gross borrowings came in at P1.42 trillion, 16.13 percent higher than the P1.22 trillion recorded in the same period last year.
Domestic debt accounted for the bulk of May's gross borrowings at P131.72 billion, 0.05 percent lower than the year-earlier P131.79 billion but significantly higher than the P82.36 billion in April.
For the first five months of the year, domestic debt totaled P1.17 trillion.
Foreign borrowings, meanwhile, were markedly higher at P127.61 billion from P14.99 billion a year earlier. It is also higher than the P6.84 billion recorded in the previous month.
As of end-May, foreign debt totaled P251.71 billion.
The bulk of domestic borrowings, or P121.72 billion, came from fixed-rate Treasury bonds, with another P10 billion raised from T-bills.
Global bonds, meanwhile, accounted for most of the foreign borrowings for the month at P115.25 billion and another P12.37 billion from project loans.
Government financing surged to P251.45 billion for the month, down 60 percent from the year-earlier P141.67 billion. It was also up over five times from April's P50.1 billion.
Financing for the first five months of 2024 totaled P1.04 trillion, 11.09 percent lower than the P1.17 trillion recorded in the same period last year.
As of end-April, the national government's outstanding debt hit P15.02 trillion due to peso depreciation.
Of the total debt stock, 31.36 percent was borrowed abroad, while 68.64 percent was sourced domestically.
Domestic borrowings totaled P10.31 trillion as of end-April, 0.3 percent higher compared to a month earlier, while external debt totaled P4.71 trillion, 1.30 percent or P60.49 billion higher month on month.
NIÑA MYKA PAULINE ARCEO