Duterte borrows P1 T in past 6 months – Manila Bulletin

Former President Duterte borrowed 1 trillion pesos in his last six months in Malacañang.

Data from the Treasury Office showed that the national government’s net borrowing reached 1,021 billion pesos from January to June this year. This amount, however, was 40% lower than the 1.719 trillion pesos in the same period last year.

Based on the Treasury report, the bulk of the borrowing came from within, amounting to 740.17 billion pesos.

At the end of June, gross local financing reached 741.26 billion pesos, of which 535.4 billion pesos were long-term IOUs while the 457.8 billion pesos came from the proceeds of the sale of treasury bills to the detail.

However, the government recorded a net redemption of treasury bills amounting to 251.92 billion pesos in the first half and settled its 300 billion peso cash advance with Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Meanwhile, the government’s net borrowing from offshore markets reached P281.57 billion in the first half of the year.

According to the Treasury, there were 136.6 billion pesos in program loans during the period and 46.85 billion pesos in project loans.

The government also tapped overseas debt markets for 117.32 billion pesos of new debt and sold 28 billion pesos of Samurai bonds.

Likewise, the Treasury recorded a net payment of 47.76 billion pesos.

In June alone, the national government’s net borrowing fell by 15%, from 159.9 billion pesos to 138.63 billion pesos. Of this amount, 96.1 billion pesos were borrowed on the domestic market and 42.5 billion pesos from foreign financing.

Earlier, the Treasury reported that the total stock of national government debt stood at P12.5 trillion at the end of May 2022.

Total debt fell 2.1% from the previous month’s level of 12.76 trillion pesos, mainly due to the repayment of provisional advances from the central bank. The level of debt, however, is up 12.9% from the previous year’s level of 11,070 billion pesos.

Of the total outstanding debt, 30.7% came from abroad while 69.3% was domestic borrowing.

Domestic debt stood at P8.67 trillion in May, 3% lower than the level at the end of April 2022.