By Aubrey Rose A. Inosante, Reporter
THE NATIONAL Government’s (NG) gross borrowings declined in November on lower domestic debt issuances, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said.
Data from the BTr showed that total gross borrowings plunged by 48% to P65.05 billion in November from P125.46 billion in the same month a year ago.
Month on month, gross borrowings went down by 50% from P129.26 billion in October.
Gross domestic borrowings slumped by 60% to P48.88 billion in November from the P121.02 billion seen a year ago.
This included P30 billion in fixed-rate Treasury bonds (T-bonds) and P18.88 billion in Treasury bills (T-bills). In November, T-bond issuances fell by 70% from P100 billion during the same month last year.
On the other hand, gross external debt increased by 263.91% to P16.17 billion in November from P4.44 billion a year ago.
This was made up of P8.7-billion project loans and P7.47-billion program loans.
“The year-on-year decline in gross borrowings, despite the wider budget deficit data for the month, may be largely attributed to the lower amount of matured National Government debt/government securities for the month that fundamentally reduced NG debt servicing costs, particularly on principal payments and necessitated less NG borrowings,”
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message.
In the January-to-November period, BTr data showed gross borrowings jumped by 18.73% to P2.49 trillion from P2.1 trillion in the same period last year.
The bulk or 76.65% of the 11-month gross borrowings were from domestic sources.
Domestic debt went up by 17% to P1.91 trillion in the 11-month period from P1.64 trillion a year ago.
Broken down, fixed-rate T-bonds stood at P1.1 trillion, P584.86 billion in retail T-bonds, and P228.26 billion in T-bills.
Meanwhile, external debt in the first 11 months rose by 24.4% to P582.41 billion from P460.75 billion a year prior.
This was composed of P256.24 billion in global bonds, P223.04 billion in program loans, and P86.97 billion in new project loans.
This year’s borrowing plan is set at P2.57 trillion, with P1.92 trillion coming from domestic sources and P646.08 billion from overseas, according to the latest Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing data.
Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto previously said that the government is looking to issue US dollar- or euro-denominated bonds in the first half of 2025. It aims to raise at least P300 billion from the issuance.
Mr. Ricafort said the government securities (GS) in December were expected to have been lower “given the holiday mode.”
This will be the case “until GS maturities increase around April 2025,” he said.
