THE national government's gross borrowings swelled by nearly 17 percent to P1.77 trillion in the first five months of the year as the government relied more on domestic sources for its financing.

Data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed this was higher than the combined gross external and domestic borrowings from January to May last year amounting to P1.51 trillion.

Bulk of the gross borrowings during the five-month period this year were sourced from domestic sources amounting to P1.51 trillion, higher by 31.23 percent from P1.15 trillion a year ago.

Of all the local sources, the government secured the biggest amount through short-term-borrowings from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), at P540 billion. The government also borrowed P463.3 billion through Retail Treasury Bonds and Premyo Bonds, P389 billion through fixed-rate Treasury Bonds, and P120.3 billion through Treasury Bills.

Meanwhile, gross external borrowings from January to May this year shrank by 29 percent to P253.04 billion from last year's 356.64 billion.

Almost half of the financing that the government secured from foreign sources came from its issuance of its first-ever triple-tranche euro-denominated global bonds which allowed it to raise P121.97 billion. Aside from this, the government also secured financing through program loans (P72.12 billion), project loans (P34.76 billion) and its first-ever zero-coupon yen-denominated Samurai bonds (P24.19 billion).

For May alone, gross borrowings of the national government plunged by 61.29 percent to P112.19 billion from P289.82 billion in the same month in 2020. The government borrowed less from both domestic and external sources during the period.

Gross domestic borrowings in May dropped by 38.78 percent to P104.4 billion this year from last year's P170.51 billion.

On the other hand, gross external borrowings in the same period plummeted by 93.47 percent to P7.79 billion from P119.3 billion in May 2020.

For this year, the national government has set a P3.1-trillion borrowing program, of which around 75 percent is expected to be raised through domestic sources.

The national government's total outstanding debt continued to swell to a fresh record high of P10.991 trillion in April this year as the country resorts to more borrowings to finance its pandemic response.

This was up by 2 percent from P10.77 trillion reported at the end of the year's first quarter and it was also a 27.8-percent jump from P8.6 trillion of end-April last year.

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III has said the country's debt-to-GDP ratio this year is expected to reach 58.7 percent. This is below the 60-percent international threshold but higher than the country's 14-year-high debt-to-GDP ratio last year at P54.6 percent.

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