Government borrowings declined in the first three quarters of the year due to less availment of loans from multilateral lenders and lower issuance of bonds.

Bureau of Treasury data showed that the government borrowed P391.86 billion from domestic and foreign creditors in January to September, over one percent lower than the P396.12 billion debts it obtained in the same period last year.

Domestic borrowings during the nine-month period increased by 18.75 percent to P340.56 billion from P286.79 billion last year.

On the other hand, statistics showed that foreign borrowings plunged by 53.1 percent to P51.31 billion from P109.34 billion. The government issued less foreign-denominated bonds this year amounting to only $500 million compared to last year's $750 million.

Likewise, official development assistance loans secured by the Philippines from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Japan Bank for International Cooperation and others tumbled 49 percent in January to September to P31.02 billion from P60.57 billion.

Payments of maturing domestic and foreign obligations, meanwhile, declined by 1.8 percent to P302.65 billion in the first nine months of the year from P308.31 billion in the same period last year.

In all, the government's net borrowings to finance the budget deficit reached P89.26 billion from P87.81 billion.

Due to poor revenue collections and higher expenditures, the government's fiscal deficit widened by 33.4 percent to P53.4 billion from January to September this year compared with P40 billion in the same period last year. The shortfall was P18.2 billion higher than the targeted deficit of P35.1 billion for the period.

Revenues expanded only by 8.3 percent to P879.9 billion or P14.1 billion lower than the P894 billion goal.

Expenditures, on the other hand, jumped by 9.5 percent to P933.3 billion from P852.3 billion, exceeding the programmed spending of P929.1 billion.

The Philippines has abandoned its commitment to balance the national budget as it expects a deficit of P75 billion or one percent of gross domestic product this year.

The country is banking on the sale of some assets to trim the deficit.