The government's gross borrowings as of end-February soared year-on-year by 36.77 percent due to higher domestic borrowings, the Bureau of Treasury said.

Data from the state-run Treasury Bureau showed that the government's gross borrowings, also called financing, increased to P417.634 billion from P305.339 billion during the same month last year.

Month on month, gross borrowings soared by 252.51 percent from P118.474 billion last January.

In February, gross domestic borrowings accounted for 99.38 percent of the government's total gross borrowings.

Gross domestic borrowings increased year-on-year by 26.73 percent to P415.232 billion in February, from P327.641 billion in the same month in 2023.

During the month, the Treasury Bureau raised P341.412 billion from retail Treasury bonds (RTBs), P60 billion from fixed-rate Treasury bonds, and P13.820 billion from Treasury bills.

Higher interest rates and borrowing costs also made it more expensive for the government to service its debt, which led to more borrowing.

On the other hand, gross external borrowings declined by 70.33 percent to P4.741 billion in February from P15.984 billion in the same month in 2022. External borrowings were made up solely of new project loans.

Gross domestic financing down in 1st two months

Meanwhile, data from BTr showed that gross financing in the first two months of the year declined by 20.1 percent to P536.108 billion from the year-ago level of P671.344 billion.

Gross domestic financing rose by 9.82 percent to P556.737 billion in the January-to-February period, from P506.941 billion a year ago.

However, external gross borrowings plummeted by 67.38 percent to P66.387 billion in the two-month period from P203.547 billion.