BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno
MANILA – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) policy-making Monetary Board (MB) has approved the national government’s request for an additional PHP540 billion in provisional advances.
In a Viber message to journalists on Thursday, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said the Board’s decision was made during its rate-setting meeting.
Diokno, however, did not give details of the Board’s decision.
On Wednesday, he announced that the national government has asked for a funding boost to address additional pandemic-related financing.
This is the second cash advance extended by the central bank to the national government following the PHP300 billion it provided through a repurchase agreement to buy government securities last March.
Diokno said the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) “fully settled the previous PHP300 billion repo (repurchase agreement) on 29 September 2020.”
The BSP’s Charter authorizes the central bank to extend funding support to the national government in an amount that is equivalent to 20 percent of the latter’s average revenues in the past three years, which to date is about PHP540 billion.
National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said the latest BSP cash advance would not affect this year’s borrowing program because it “is part of the PHP3-trillion borrowing program.”
De Leon was referring to the government’s bid to borrow about PHP6 trillion for this year and next to finance expenditures since revenues have also been affected by the pandemic. (PNA)
