The Philippines’s total debt to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) increased by 9 percent last year, according to the annual report of the Manila-based multilateral development bank.
In the report, the Philippines’s total debts for projects it financed through loans from the ADB’s Ordinary Capital Resources went up to $7.75 billion in 2017, from $7.11 billion in 2016.
The Philippines is now considered ADB’s seventh-largest borrower out of the 40 countries that obtained loans from the Manila-based multilateral in 2017.
“ADB’s OCR operations comprise loans, equity investments, investment in other debt securities and guarantees. ADB finances its ordinary operations through borrowings, paid-in capital and reserves,” ADB said.
Annual operations of ADB increased 26 percent to a record $32.2 billion in 2017, according to the annual report.
ADB’s total operations of $32.2 billion last year consisted of $20.1 billion in loans, grants and investments from its own resources, which was 51 percent higher and nonsovereign operations of $2.3 billion, a 31-percent increase from 2016.
Total operations also included $11.9 billion in cofinancing from bilateral and multilateral agencies and other financing partners, and $201 million in technical assistance, an 11-percent increase from 2016.
These figures are based on the ADB’s new performance measure of “commitments,” or the amount of loans, grants and investments signed in a given year.
ADB introduced this measure in 2017 to promote project readiness at the approval stage, expedite post-approval steps and get closer to project disbursement, by placing more emphasis on when the projects are signed rather than when they are approved by ADB’s board of directors.
“We began a new chapter in meeting development needs across Asia and the Pacific in 2017,” said ADB President Takehiko Nakao. “With the merger of the bank’s concessional Asian Development Fund lending operations with the ordinary capital resources balance sheet from the start of 2017, the ADB has a solid capital base to support our operations going forward.”
The ADB’s financing of climate mitigation and adaptation reached a record $4.5 billion in 2017, a 21-percent increase from the previous year. The bank is now in a good position to achieve its $6-billion annual climate-financing target by 2020.
ADB also mobilized an additional $606 million from external financing, bringing total climate financing to $5.2 billion last year. On the downside, ADB’s disbursements declined to $11.1 billion in 2017, from $12.3 billion in 2016, according to the report. Cofinancing also fell short of the ADB’s targets.
“We will come up with concrete measures to increase disbursements and cofinancing, building on the new ADB procurement policy approved in April 2017 and ongoing efforts to leverage the bank’s resources,” Nakao said.
The report presents a more comprehensive picture of ADB operations than the previous annual reports in terms of numbers and institutional data.
It provides expanded sections on financial highlights, sector and thematic work, and knowledge. ADB’s specific assistance to countries and regional programs, lists of trust funds and corporate reports, and organizational structure are also added.