PH posts $1.9-B net receipts in H1

MANILA â€“ The national government (NG) registered net receipts amounting to USD1.928 billion in the first half of 2020. 

Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed that total foreign exchange inflows from January to end-June reached USD8.203 billion, while foreign exchange disbursement amounted to USD6.275 billion during the same period. 

Bulk of the inflows was accounted for by program loans amounting to USD4.277 billion and was trailed by commercial borrowings, USD3.672 billion; and project loans, USD254 million. 

Of the total programmed loans, USD1.514 billion came from active response loans for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) and USD498 million from emergency Covid-19 and development policy. 

Others are accounted for by those allocated for social protection, USD100 million; local government reform, USD300 million; promoting competitiveness, USD399 million; facilitating youth-to-school transition, USD400 million; and social welfare development, USD299.3 million. 

Also, emergency assistance for reconstruction of Marawi received a loan amount of USD206.8 million; third disaster risk management loan, USD498.8 million; and social protection support II, USD60 million. 

Commercial borrowings during the period are accounted for by the USD2.348 billion issuance of multi-tenor US dollar-denominated global bonds and the USD1.324 billion worth of multi-tenor Euro-denominated global bond. 

Meanwhile, projects loans came from the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB), USD1.576 million; Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), USD98.069 million; International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the lending arm of the World Bank Group, USD30.84 million; International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFA), a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN), USD11.146 million; and others, USD113.073 million. 

During the same six-month period, NG’s foreign exchange disbursement was made for debt servicing, USD3.305 billion, foreign exchange conversion, USD2.916 billion; and other net disbursement, USD0.054 billion. Debt servicing pertains to the payments for the principal and interest of NG’s commercial borrowings as well as project and programmed loans. 

Foreign exchange conversion refers to the amount of dollars withdrawn from the central bank to convert it to Philippine peso with the NG’s other counter parties. Meanwhile, other net disbursements include charges and disbursements of grants to other government agencies and net of interest income on the national government’s deposits. -PNA