Finance Secretary Margarito B. Teves said the National Government has foreign exchange requirements of slightly over $4 billion next year, half of which will come from official development assistance (ODA) loans.

The other half is commercial borrowing through the sale of either or both US dollar and euro bonds. The government will also consider the reopening of existing bond issues or issuance of new global bonds, or a combination of both.

For this year, the NG has already raised $2.25 billion from the sale of global bonds and $1.1 billion from both program and project loans.

Teves said the borrowing program could still change, depending on several factors. “We don’t know yet if we will have additional borrowing for this year. It will depend on market conditions, the cash position of BTr (Bureau of the Treasury) and of course, the timing.”

“We normally take this as a dynamic situation,” he added.

The government conducted two international transactions this year the first was in January when it raised $1.5 billion from a global bond issuance. It returned to the global capital markets in July with a $750 million bond sale.

Aside from the global bonds issue, the government also has the option of issuing so-called Samurai bonds that Japan Bank for International Cooperation will guarantee up to 95 percent of the present value. The agreement was that the Philippines will have a window of two years to utilize the bonds. The last time the country tapped the Japanese capital market was in December 2001 when it raised 50 billion yen of Shibosai Bonds.

Teves has repeatedly emphasized that the government could not rely heavily on foreign loans given the huge debt load which they expect will increase to almost 58 percent of gross domestic product this year. (LCC)