THE national government's gross borrowings dropped to P207 billion in March as foreign debt plunged, according to latest Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) data.

Based on the bureau's latest cash operations report, overall borrowings totaled P207.27 billion for the month, down 12.8 percent from the P237.60 billion logged a year earlier. It also dropped from the P419.97 billion recorded in February of this year.

Year-to-date, gross borrowings came to P830.39 billion, 12.4 percent lower than the P948.09 billion recorded in the same period last year.

Domestic debt accounted for the bulk of March's gross borrowings at P156.4 billion, 7.08 percent higher than the year-earlier P146.05 billion but significantly down from the P415.23 billion in February.

For the first three months of the year, domestic debt was recorded at P713.03 billion.

Foreign borrowings, on the other hand, were markedly lower at P50.87 billion from P91.56 billion a year earlier but higher than the P4.74 billion recorded in the second month of 2024.

In the first quarter, foreign debt totaled at P117.26 billion.

The bulk of domestic borrowings, or P120 billion, came from fixed-rate Treasury bonds, with another P36.4 billion raised from T-bills.

Program loans, meanwhile, accounted for most of the foreign borrowings for the month at P39.14 billion, with another P11.73 billion from project loans.

Government financing dropped to P200.48 billion for the month, down 12.6 percent from the year-earlier P229.43 billion. It was down more than half of February's P417.63 billion.

Financing for the first three months of 2024 totaled P736.58 billion, 18.23 percent lower than the P900.78 billion recorded in the same period last year.

As of end-February, the national government's outstanding debt hit a new high of P15.18 trillion and is now P1.43 trillion more than it was a year earlier.

March debt data will be released on Friday, May 3.

A total of P388.51 billion was added from January, primarily due to domestic debt issuances that were partially tempered by the effect of the stronger peso on the valuation of foreign debt.

In percentage terms, the debt rose by 2.63 percent from January, 3.85 percent from end-December 2023 and 10.37 percent from a year earlier.

Domestic borrowings comprised the bulk or 69.68 percent of outstanding debt at P10.58 trillion.

External debt accounted for 30.32 percent of total outstanding debt as of end-February, totaling P4.6 trillion.