BSP: Firms must submit foreign borrowing plans
COMPANIES operating in the Philippines have been advised to submit their foreign borrowing plans for 2019 to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
The BSP said submissions were required from public and private firms planning to secure medium- and long-term foreign loans from offshore sources (banks and foreign parent firms, affiliates or shareholders, including offshore issuances of debt instruments) or issue onshore debt instruments that need settlement in foreign currency.
“In line with responsibility of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to monitor capital flows and analyze their implications on the economy, an annual survey is conducted to get an indication of the magnitude and timing of the economy’s financing requirements for the following year, as well as the purpose of such borrowings, among others,” it explained.
The plans should be submitted to the central bank’s International Operations Department not later than September 30.
The advisory came after the Bangko Sentral reported in June that the country’s outstanding external debt totaled $73.2 billion at the end of the first quarter.
The amount was $98 million more than the $73.1 billion recorded as of end-December 2017, largely due to $621 million in foreign exchange revaluation adjustments and another $685-million adjustment due to late reporting.
The January-to-March figure was an 0.8-percent drop from $73.8 billion in the same period last year, due to net principal repayments totaling $3.4 billion.
About 82.4 percent of the Philippines’ external debt is medium- to long-term in nature with maturities of over one year. This means foreign exchange requirements for debt payments are well-spread out and more manageable, BSP said.
Of the country’s first-quarter external debt, the public sector owed $39.2 billion, or 53.6 percent, of it. Banks and companies contracted the rest.
Loans from multilateral/bilateral creditors and foreign holders of bonds and notes make up the largest shares of total outstanding debt at 33.6 percent and 30.2 percent, respectively.
Foreign banks and other financial institutions accounted for 28.7 percent, while the rest was mostly owed to foreign suppliers/exporters.
By currency, 61.5 percent of the foreign debt was in US dollars and 13.5 percent in yen; 14.5 percent were multicurrency loans from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank; and 10.5 percent were obligations in 17 other currencies.
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