MANILA – The country aims to raise $23.71 billion or P1.14 trillion from external sources to bridge a planned budget deficit and fund priority projects this year including $5.5 billion from commercial markets.
The amount is 39 percent higher than the $17.01 billion raised from external sources last year for key infrastructure projects and for helping bridge a wider budget deficit due to state spending on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response measures.
A total of $8.06 billion or P387.24 billion of this year’s amount will be for budget support purposes, while the balance of $15.65 billion or P751.9 billion will be for project financing, the Department of Finance said on Sunday.
This year’s budget of P4.5 trillion or $93.7 billion is intended to bankroll an economic recovery and fund the purchase of millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
The government is targeting full-year growth of 6.5 to 7.5 percent for the pandemic-hit economy which contracted by a record of 9.5 percent last year.
According to the DOF, the government plans to secure $7.67 billion or P368.5 billion this year, in loans and grants from multilateral institutions, $10.54 billion or around P506.39 billion from bilateral sources, and $5.5 billion or around P264.24 billion from the debt markets.
Last year, the DOF secured $7.73 billion or P371.38 billion from multilateral lenders, $2.86 billion or around P137.41 billion from bilateral partners, and $6.47 billion or around P310.85 billion from commercial markets.
Of the total external financing contracted in 2020, around $15.44 billion (around P741.81 billion) was for government’s emergency requirements for COVID-19 response while $1.62 billion (P77.83 billion) was for other initiatives including infrastructure projects.(Reuters via ABS-CBN News)
