The National Government's gross borrowings declined in April this year as both external and domestic financing recorded contractions from the previous year’s level, the Bureau of Treasury said.

Data from the state-run Treasury Bureau showed that the country's total borrowings, also called financing, reached P50.100 billion, down by 59.99 percent from P125.230 billion last year.

On a month-to-month basis, gross borrowings fell by 75 percent from P200.475 billion last March.

Gross domestic borrowings declined by 14.32 percent to P82.360 billion in April, from the P96.127 billion recorded a year ago.

Broken down, domestic borrowings were composed of P67.258 billion in fixed-rate Treasury bonds and P15.102 billion in Treasury bills.

Meanwhile, foreign financing amounted to P6.842 billion, 79.74 percent lower than its year-ago level of P33.779 billion. External borrowings during the month were composed entirely of new project loans.

In the first four months of the year, gross borrowings stood at P786,683 billion, down from P1.026 trillion last year.

Gross domestic borrowings stood at P1.038 trillion in the January-to-April period, up by 38.68 percent from P749.113 billion a year ago. 

Domestic debt consisted of P584.861 billion in retail Treasury bonds (RTBs), P377.258 billion in fixed-rate Treasury bonds and P76.822 billion in Treasury bills.

On the other hand, external gross borrowings plunged by 99.96 percent to P124.099 billion in the period ending April from P328.883 billion a year ago.

This was made up of P28.664 billion in project loans and P95.435 billion in new program loans.