Govt debt rises to P7.76T at end-Jan

Credit to Author: Mayvelin U. Caraballo, TMT| Date: Mon, 02 Mar 2020 16:19:37 +0000

THE outstanding debt of the national government rose to P7.76 trillion at the end of January this year, mainly due to net availment of foreign financing, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) reported on Monday.

In a statement, the BTr said the amount was a 0.4-percent or P32.05-billion increase from the P7.73 trillion posted at end-December 2019.

“Of the total debt stock, 34 percent were sourced externally while 66 percent are domestic debt,” it added.

Domestic borrowings totaling P5.12 trillion — down 0.1 percent from the end-December
amount — accounted for the bulk of outstanding debt, while external debt increased by 1.4 percent to P2.63 trillion.

Outstanding debt the year before stood at P7.94 trillion, with domestic and foreign obligations at P4.90 trillion and P2.58 trillion, respectively.

The BTr explained higher domestic obligations during the month was “mainly due to the net redemption of government securities amounting to P3.86 billion, which more than offset the P0.03 billion effect of peso depreciation on onshore dollar bonds.”

Meanwhile, the bureau traced the expansion in external debt to the net availment of foreign loans amounting to P33.51 billion and the P2.72 billion effect of local currency depreciation on dollar-denominated debt.

“On the other hand, third-currency revaluation trimmed P0.34 billion,” it added.

A foreign exchange rate of P50.85 against the dollar was used for the latest data, compared with end-December’s P50.80:$1. The exchange rate used a year earlier was P52.16:$1.

Government-guaranteed debt dropped from end-December by 0.1 percent or P452 million to P488.29 billion at end-January 2020. It was up 0.2 percent from the year-ago figure.

The month-on-month decrease, the bureau said, “was due to the net redemption of both local and foreign guarantees amounting to P0.46 billion and P0.39 billion, respectively.”

This was tempered by local and third-currency exchange rate fluctuations that increased the value of external guarantees by P0.24 billion and P0.16 billion, respectively, it added.

Earlier, the Treasury bureau said the government would borrow more money from local sources in the first quarter.

January-to-March borrowings were set at P420 billion, up 90.90 percent from P220 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019 and 16.66 percent from P360 billion in the same period last year.

Of the amount set, the government would borrow P240 billion through the issuance of Treasury bills and the remaining P180 billion through Treasury bonds.

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