FOREIGN borrowing approvals grew by over 40 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said on Monday.
At $3.90 billion, the amount was 43 percent higher than the $2.73 billion approved a year earlier by the central bank’s policymaking Monetary Board.
It was also higher than the first quarter’s $2.87 billion.
Authorized borrowings for the second quarter comprised a bond issuance totaling $2.0 billion and three project loans worth $1.90 billion.
The borrowings, the BSP said, were used to fund the government’s general budget financing and financing/refinancing of assets in line with the country’s Sustainable Finance Framework ($2.0 billion) and transport infrastructure projects ($1.9 billion).
Under the 1987 Constitution, foreign loans to be contracted or guaranteed by the Philippine government must first be approved by the Monetary Board.
Letter of Instruction 158, dated Jan. 21, 1974, also states that all foreign borrowing proposals by the national government, government agencies and government financial institutions must be submitted to the Monetary Board for approval-in-principle before actual negotiations start.
“The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas promotes the judicious use of the resources and ensures that external debt requirements are at manageable levels, to support external debt sustainability,” the central bank said.
Foreign borrowing approvals totaled $14.49 billion last year, up from 2022’s $10.32 billion, as the government sought to finance a budget deficit.
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