MANILA -- The Philippines jumped to fifth place from seventh in the list of largest borrowers from the World Bank, according to the multilateral lender’s annual report for 2023.

In its 2023 annual report, the Bank said the Philippines has $2.336 billion in approved loans from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which is part of the World Bank Group.

India was the World Bank's top borrower with $4.32 billion in loans, followed by Turkey with $3.881 billion.

They were followed by Indonesia, which had $3.25 billion in loans, and Ukraine with $3.133 billion.

In January, the WB lent the Philippines $600 million to support country’s financial sector and boost its pandemic recovery.

The country also took out a P10-billion loan from the World Bank for its Philippine Multi-sectoral Nutrition Project (PMNP), through which it hopes to reduce stunting among children.

In June, the lender also approved a a $750 million (P41.9 billion) financing to boost the Philippines' environmental protection and climate resiliency reforms.

The Philippines also signed a $600 million loan deal with the World Bank to boost the agriculture and fisheries sector in the country in July for the Philippine Rural Development Project (PRDP) Scale-Up program.

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In its report, the World Bank it is also working on infrastructure projects like the Metro Manila Flood Management Project.

"The Metro Manila Flood Management Project is improving the city’s drainage infrastructure, establishing flood-prevention systems, and relocating informal settler families," the lender said.

"In the Philippines, our engagement in Mindanao brought together groups
engaged in conflict to collectively allocate resources and solve problems," the World Bank added.

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The Philippines has been borrowing heavily from local and foreign lenders since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2019, the Philippines was not even among the top 10 borrowers from the World Bank. However in 2020, when the pandemic hit, the country became the Bank’s number 2 borrower behind India.

In 2021, the Philippines even became the Bank’s number 1 borrower with over $3 billion in loans. This followed the year when the country implemented one of the strictest pandemic lockdowns which saw the economy shrink 9.6 percent–the worst of any major ASEAN economy.

The borrowing trend has continued, which has seen the Philippines’ sovereign debt further increase in August to a new record of P14.35 trillion.

A lawmaker earlier said that the government plans to borrow another P2.46 trillion to partly fund the P5.768 trillion national budget for next year.

Philippine economic managers however have said that the rising debt was manageable.

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