The government received $8.203 billion worth of foreign loans in the first half mostly to fund COVID-19 response initiatives and development programs.
Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed the government incurred net foreign exchange receipts of $1.928 billion in the six-month period. Total inflows reached $8.203 billion, higher than disbursements of $6.275 billion.
“We are providing this update in the spirit of transparency,” Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno said Friday.
The inflows were broken down as commercial borrowings, amounting to $3.672 billion; program loans, $4.277 billion; and project loans, $254 million.
Commercial borrowings are composed of the Republic of the Philippines global bonds worth $2.348 billion, and 2020 Euro global bonds worth $1.324 billion.
The program loans of $4.277 billion covered COVID-19 response, $1.514 billion; emergency COVID response and development policy, $498.8 million; social protection, $100 million; local governance reform, $300 million; promoting competitiveness, $399 million; facilitating youth-to-school transition, $400 million; social welfare development, $299.3 million; emergency assistance for Marawi reconstruction, $206.8 million; disaster risk management, $498.8 million; and social protection support II, $60 million.
The project loans of $254 million included those from the Asian Development Bank, $1.576 million; Japan International Cooperation Agency, $98.069 million; IBRD, $30.840 million; IFAD, $11.146 million; and others, $113.073 million.
Meanwhile, the national government’s foreign exchange disbursements amounted to $6.275 billion in the first six months. This included debt servicing, amounting to $3.305 billion; foreign exchange conversion, $2.916 billion; and other net disbursements, $54 million.
Debt servicing refers to payments of principal and interest on national government’s commercial borrowings, program loans and project loans. FX conversion, meanwhile, refers to amounts withdrawn for conversion to pesos with the national government’s other counterparties.
Other net disbursements include charges and disbursements of grants to other government agencies, net of interest income on the national government’s deposit.