The national government may issue another round of commercial borrowings this year, if the country’s budget deficit will exceed the target, the Department of Finance (DoF) said Wednesday.

“If the deficit is higher, probably we will allow for additional borrowings,” Secretary Margarito B. Teves told reporters on the sidelines of Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) meeting.

Teves, however, failed to identify whether the commercial borrowings will be sourced locally or offshore.

But he stressed that the additional borrowing is “if and only if” the government surpass the programmed fiscal gap for 2010, which is P293.2 billion.

Last Tuesday, the national government raised $500-million fixed-rate multi-currency retail treasury bonds (RTBs).

Roberto Juanchito Dispo, First Metro Investment Corp. executive vice president, earlier said the government may sell another bonds aimed at overseas Filipinos in the second half of 2010. Also in January, the government had raised $1.5 billion through the sale of dollar-denominated bonds, making it the first Asian sovereign debt issuer in 2010.

To complete government's commercial borrowing programmed for the year, the DoF also raised roughly $1.1 billion in February, through the sale of Samurai bonds.

The Philippines requires a huge amount to fund this year to finance the government’s budget deficit, which is seen to reach P293.2 billion.

Meanwhile, the DBCC is upbeat that the country’s financial gap will be contained at 3.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) for the year.

At the same time, the country’s economic output growth target will be maintained at the present level of 2.6 percent to 3.6 percent pending the release of the release of the actual growth performance due on May 27.

“The DBCC will meet again next week to discuss the fiscal program for 2011 and the outlook for the following years. This is to determine the budget level for next year,” Budget Secretary Joaquin C. Lagonera Sr. said.