Govt debt dips slightly in Oct
Credit to Author: Mayvelin U. Caraballo, TMT| Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2019 16:25:56 +0000
The national government’s outstanding debt dropped further to P7.906 trillion in October on account of a stronger peso, according to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr).
In a statement on Friday, the Treasury bureau said the amount was a 0.02-percent or P1.60-billion decrease from September’s P7.907 trillion.
“Of the total debt stock, 32.90 percent are external debt, while 67.10 percent are domestic debt,” it added.
Domestic borrowings totaling P5.30 trillion — up 0.89 percent from the September amount — accounted for the bulk of the outstanding debt, while external debt decreased by 1.83 percent to P2.60 trillion.
Outstanding debt the year before stood at P7.16 trillion, with domestic and foreign obligations at P4.62 trillion and P2.54 trillion, respectively.
The BTr explained that higher domestic obligations during the month “resulted from a P47.53-billion net issuance of government securities, which was partially offset by a P0.52 billion reduction in the local currency valuation of onshore dollar bonds caused by [the] peso appreciation.”
The bureau attributed the decline in external debt to the peso appreciation, which trimmed the valuation of US dollar-denominated debt by P52.49 billion, and to net repayments of loans amounting to P630 million.
A foreign-exchange rate of P50.76 against the dollar was used for the latest data, compared with September’s P51.79:$1. The exchange rate used a year earlier was P53.52:$1.
“On the other hand, appreciation of third currencies against the peso added P4.49 billion to the external debt,” the BTr said.
Government-guaranteed debt, meanwhile, eased from September by 1.40 percent or P6.77 billion to P477.65 billion in October. It was down 1.46 percent from the year-ago figure.
The month-on-month decline, the bureau said, “was due to the combined effect of local and third-currency fluctuations that reduced the value of external guarantees by P4.65 billion and P0.03 billion, respectively.”
It added that the P2.14-billion net repayment of domestic guarantees offset the P0.05-billion net availment of external guarantees, respectively.