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Philippines secures over 8.8 bln USD for COVID-19 response

The Philippines has so far secured a total of 8.83 billion USD in borrowings, loans and grant assistance for the government's COVID-19 response efforts from its development partners and the commercial markets, China’s Xinhua News Agency reported.
Philippines secures over 8.8 bln USD for COVID-19 response ảnh 1People wear mask to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the capital city of Manila, the Philippines. (Photo: Xinhua)

Hanoi (VNA) – The Philippines has so far secured a total of 8.83 billion USDin borrowings, loans and grant assistance for the government's COVID-19 responseefforts from its development partners and the commercial markets, China’sXinhua News Agency reported.

The PhilippineDepartment of Finance (DOF) said on September 6 that of the total amount, 5.98billion USD  is budget support financingfrom the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the Asian InfrastructureInvestment Bank, the French Development Agency and the Japan InternationalCooperation Agency.

A total of2.35 billion USD was sourced from the government's latest global bond offeringthat fetched its lowest ever coupon in the USD market, the DOF added.

The DOF saidthe remaining 496.36 million USD is from grant and loan financing from thePhilippines' development partners for various COVID-19 specific projects.

FinanceSecretary Carlos Dominguez said that total government borrowings for 2020 and2021 are projected to reach 3 trillion pesos (roughly 61.7 billion USD) tosupport priority expenditures necessary for the country's swift recovery fromthe COVID-19 crisis and public investments in infrastructure and socialservices.

Dominguezadded that borrowings are expected to settle at 2.3 trillion pesos (roughly47.3 billion USD) in 2022, with funding in favor of domestic sources.

He said thedebt-to-GDP ratio is projected to settle at 54 percent this year, 58 percent in2021, and 60 percent in 2022.

Dominguezadded that these projections are still lower when compared to the country'sall-time high debt level of 71.6 percent of GDP in 2004. Last year, thedebt-to-GDP ratio fell to a historic low at 39.6 percent.

COVID-19-triggeredlockdowns severely curtailed the country’s economic activities and muted itsrevenue-generation capacity, with total revenue collection reaching only 1.7trillion pesos (roughly 35 billion USD) in the first seven months of 2020, or 7percent lower than the revenue take in the same period last year, with 85percent of the revenues coming from tax collections./.
VNA
#COVID-19 #Philippines #COVID-19 response #borrowings #loans #grant assistance #debt-to-GDP ratio #lockdowns #revenue collection #Vietnam News Agency #Vietnamplus Philippines
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