National government gross borrowings decline to PHP 65B in Nov.

The national government (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 PHP 65.05 billion in November from PHP 125.46 billion in the same month a year ago.

Month on month, gross borrowings went down by 50% from PHP 129.26 billion in October.

Gross domestic borrowings slumped by 60% to PHP 48.88 billion in November from the PHP 121.02 billion seen a year ago.

This included PHP 30 billion in fixed-rate Treasury bonds (T-bonds) and PHP 18.88 billion in Treasury bills (T-bills). In November, T-bond issuances fell by 70% from PHP 100 billion during the same month last year.

On the other hand, gross external debt increased by 263.91% to PHP 16.17 billion in November from PHP 4.44 billion a year ago.

This was made up of PHP 8.7-billion project loans and PHP 7.47-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 PHP 2.49 trillion from PHP 2.1 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 PHP 1.91 trillion in the 11-month period from PHP 1.64 trillion a year ago.

Broken down, fixed-rate T-bonds stood at PHP 1.1 trillion, PHP 584.86 billion in retail T-bonds, and PHP 228.26 billion in T-bills.

Meanwhile, external debt in the first 11 months rose by 24.4% to PHP 582.41 billion from PHP 460.75 billion a year prior.

This was composed of PHP 256.24 billion in global bonds, PHP 223.04 billion in program loans, and PHP 86.97 billion in new project loans.

This year’s borrowing plan is set at PHP 2.57 trillion, with PHP 1.92 trillion coming from domestic sources and PHP 646.08 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 PHP 300 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. – Aubrey Rose A. Inosante, Reporter