Despite a more than 1,000-percent increase in disbursements for Chinese-funded projects, the government’s total disbursements for projects funded by official development assistance (ODA) contracted by more than 50 percent in the first quarter.
The Project Monitoring Staff (PMS) of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said actual disbursements in the first quarter declined to $223 million from $468 million in the same period last year. The BusinessMirror estimates this represents a 52.35-percent contraction.
“The decline was caused by implementation issues such as procurement delays, civil-works problems, and national government-local government unit cost-sharing schemes,” the Neda said in a statement.
It can be noted that one of the biggest drags to the economy in the first quarter was the decline in government spending. Data showed that government expenditure declined 17.2 percent in the quarter, while public construction contracted by 37.3 percent.
The economy grew slower by 4.9 percent in the January-to-March period. Even if the growth in the fourth quarter was rebased to constant 2000 prices, this was significantly slower that the rebased growth in the first quarter of 2010, which was estimated at 8.4 percent, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said.
The actual disbursement of ODA loans from China increased by 2,740 percent to $35.22 million in the first quarter of 2011, from only $1.24 million in the first quarter of 2010. The disbursed amount covered five ODA loans. The total commitments from China amounted to around $1.14 billion as of March 2011.
Meanwhile, the amount of ODA loans with funding from the Japanese government that were disbursed was estimated around $104.53 million in the first quarter of 2011, accounting for 47 percent of the total ODA actual disbursement. With 15 ODA loans, the Neda said the total commitments from Japan amounted to around $2.6 billion as of March 2011.
“The Neda-PMS also reported a decline in the overall disbursement rate, or the percentage of actual disbursement against target disbursement for the period, as implementing agencies averaged only 59 percent in the first quarter of 2011,” the Neda said.
The Neda also said the availment rate, or the cumulative actual disbursements against the scheduled disbursement, was also lower as of March 2011 at 70 percent compared with 80 percent a year ago.
On the other hand, the disbursement ratio, the percentage of actual disbursements against the available net loan amount, was recorded at 5 percent in the first quarter of 2011, lower than the 10-percent level in the same quarter last year.
In the first quarter, the cumulative commitments of ODA amounted to $8.03 billion as of March 2011, higher by $0.3 billion from March 2010. These commitments covered 74 loans, with 68 projects worth $7.24 billion and six programs worth $790 million.
