The national government reported gross borrowings in January this year reaching P47.659 billion, an expansion by 21.8 percent from P39.127 billion in the same month in 2017, data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) show.
This compared against the government gross borrowings of only P39.127 billion in January last year.
Domestic gross borrowings amounted to P27.681 billion for the month, far more than external borrowings reaching only P19.978 billion.
Broken down, fixed-rate Treasury bonds comprised the bulk of domestic borrowings amounting to P14.891 billion, while the sale of Treasury bills accounted for another P12.790 billion during the month.
In terms of external financing, program loans accounted for the bigger share amounting to P15.114 billion, while project loans totaled P4.864 billion. These loans are commonly sourced from multilateral agencies, such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, among others.
The government looks forward to borrowing around P889 billion from both external and local lenders this year. Foreign financing will comprise P176.26 billion while those financed domestically will account for P711.8 billion.
In 2017 the national government had gross borrowings amounting to P901.672 billion, rising by 77.8 percent from P507.02 billion in 2016.
Of the total, domestic gross borrowings for the year accounted for P733.569 billion, while those made to foreign lenders amounted to P168.103 billion.
Last year the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) said the financing mix should continue to favor domestic borrowings in the years ahead. The borrowing program is projected to follow the 80:20 mix from 2019 to 2022.
For this year the DBCC made a slight adjustment to the borrowing mix as the government is projected to borrow 74 percent locally and 26 percent from foreign entities.