By Angela Celis

The national government’s gross borrowings in January to June rose by 12.89 percent year-on-year as domestic financing registered a double-digit increase.

According to the latest cash operations report posted on the Bureau of the Treasury’s (BTr) website, the government’s gross borrowings in the first six months of the year jumped to P1.57 trillion from the P1.39 trillion recorded a year ago.

Gross domestic borrowings for the period accounted for the bigger chunk amounting to P1.3 trillion, up 27.16 percent from the year ago level of P1.02 trillion.

Of the said amount, P609.21 billion is in fixed rate treasury bonds, while P109.07 billion was accounted for by treasury bills.

Also, P584.86 billion was raised in February through the retail treasury bonds offer.

Meanwhile, the BTr data showed that gross external borrowings for the period fell by 27.02 percent to P267.41 billion from P366.44 billion a year ago.

Project loans totaled to P51.67 billion while P100.5 billion was from program loans.

The government also raised P115.25 billion from its dual-tranche global dollar bond offering in May.

For the month alone, the government recorded gross financing of P148.18 billion, 11 percent down from the year ago level of P166.49 billion.

Gross domestic borrowings amounted to P132.48 billion while foreign borrowings stood at P15.7 billion.

The BTr earlier reported that the national government’s budget deficit in the first half of the year fell below the program set for the period due to the better-than-expected revenue performance as of June.

The deficit in January to June stood at P613.9 billion, 7.24 percent below the ceiling of P661.8 billion.

Revenues exceeded the goal by 3.49 percent while expenditures inched up above program by 0.9 percent.

Year-on-year, the deficit widened by 11.27 percent from P551.7 billion a year ago as both revenues and expenditures recorded double-digit expansions.

For June alone, the deficit narrowed by 7.24 percent to P209.1 billion from P225.4 billion last year as the growth in revenues outpaced that of expenditures.