The Marcos administration significantly reduced its gross borrowings in the first quarter of 2025, totaling ₱745.1 billion—a sharp decline of ₱415 billion or 35.8% compared to ₱1.16 trillion recorded in the same period last year.
The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) attributed the decrease to the absence of a retail treasury bond (RTB) issuance, which played a major role in boosting borrowings in early 2024. That year, the government raised ₱584.9 billion from RTBs alone during the first quarter.
Domestic debt, which comprised 60.5% of the total, amounted to ₱450.8 billion—a drop of 52.9% from the ₱956.6 billion borrowed domestically last year. This was well below the government’s 80:20 target borrowing mix favoring local over foreign sources.
Borrowings from short-term treasury bills also declined to ₱48.4 billion from ₱61.7 billion a year ago. However, fixed-rate treasury bonds saw an increase, reaching ₱402.4 billion—up by 29.8% from ₱310 billion in 2024’s first quarter.
On the foreign front, loans surged to ₱294.3 billion, making up 39.5% of the total borrowings and surpassing the target foreign debt ratio of 20%. This figure was 42% higher than last year’s ₱207.3 billion, largely driven by the settlement of global bonds worth ₱192 billion—none of which were issued during the same period in 2024.
The government also slightly scaled down its program and project loans to ₱85.2 billion and ₱17.2 billion, respectively, from last year’s ₱95.4 billion and ₱21.8 billion.
In contrast, 2024 saw total gross borrowings reach ₱2.56 trillion, exceeding the annual borrowing plan by ₱100 billion due to increased reliance on both domestic and foreign financing.
