The Philippines has lowered its economic growth targets for this year and next after a deeper-than-expected contraction in gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter, its budget minister shad announced earlier this week.
Published May 10, 2021, 5:20 PM
Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said the government can make use of the humongous congressional insertions the Department of Budget and Management has tagged as “For Later Release” to meet the P20-billion requirement for the procurement of coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines for this year.
Lacson raised this possibility following a meeting between him and Senate President Vicente Sotto III, and the “three czars” of the government’s COVID response program last Thursday.
According to Lacson, the COVID response czars – vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., testing czar Vivencio Dizon, and contact tracing czar Benjamin Magalong had said the government needs P90-billion for vaccines in 2022, and P20-billion for this year.
May 4, 2021
The National Government’s (NG) total debt rose to P10,773.83 billion as of end-March 2021, the Bureau of Treasury recently reported.
For the month, P368.00 billion, representing 3.5% increase from February 2021, was added to the total portfolio due to net issuance of government securities. Of the total debt stock, 28% were sourced externally while 72% are domestic borrowings.
NG domestic debt amounted to P7,744.61 billion, which us P381.54 billion or 5.2% higher compared to the end-February 2021 level primarily due to the net issuance of government securities including P411.79 billion in Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs). From the end-December 2020 level, outstanding domestic debt has increased by P1,049.92 billion or 15.7%.