Foreign borrowings by the Marcos administration that had been approved by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) jumped 40.36 percent in 2023 compared with the previous year, with infrastructure projects receiving most of the fresh funds from new external debt.
In a report released on Monday, the BSP said the Monetary Board (MB) allowed $14.49 billion in public sector foreign borrowings last year, higher than the $10.32 billion approved in 2022.
That amount will add up to the government’s growing debt pile, which bloated to P14.51 trillion as of November last year. In the final quarter of 2023 alone, the MB cleared seven new foreign loans by the government amounting to $3.32 billion, up by a hefty 65.8 percent year-on-year.