The Philippines Aims to Raise $23.7 Billion for Funding and Budget Deficit

In bridging a planned budget deficit and funding priority projects in 2021, the Philippines aims to raise $23.71 billion from external sources.

According to the Department of Finance (DOF), this budget was 39% higher than the government raised last year. The DOF added that for allocation, $8.06 billion will go to the budget support purposes, while the rest to finance projects.

The budget for this year of 4.5 trillion pesos ($93.7 billion) will be used for economic recovery and for the purchase of millions of doses of vaccines. The government has targeted a full-year growth of 6.5%-7.5% for the economy, which contracted by a record of 9.5% in 2020.

In addition, the government this year hopes to secure $7.67 billion in grants and loans from multilateral institutions, $5.5 billion from the debt markets, and $10.54 billion from bilateral sources.