Gov’t debt declines slightly to P6.875 T

The country’s debt pile slightly declined to P6.875 trillion as of end-April from P6.879 trillion as of end-March due to stronger peso and third currency fluctuations, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTR) reported yesterday.

With the release of the first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figure, the Treasury said NG debt-to-GDP ratio rose to 42.6 percent from the end-2017 level of 42.1 percent.

“This is consistent with the front loading of government borrowings, particularly for external financing,” the BTR said in a statement.

Of the total debt as of end-April, more than 65 percent or P4.499 trillion was borrowed domestically, while the remaining P2.376 trillion came from external lenders.

Domestic obligations, for their part, was 0.7 percent of P33.08 billion up from last month’s level of P4.466 trillion.

“The increment was due to the P33.34 billion net issuance of government securities, tempered by the P0.26 billion effect of stronger peso,” the BTR said.

On the other hand, external debt shrunk by 1.5 percent or P37.26 billion as of end-April from the P2.413 trillion posted as of the end-March.

The Treasury attributed the drop to the downward adjustments in both peso and third currency-denominated debt amounting to P23.83 billion and P11.28 billion, respectively. Net repayments also reached P2.15 billion during the month.

Meanwhile, the BTR said national government guaranteed obligations decreased by 1.5 percent to P494.45 billion from P501.82 billion the previous month.

“The reduction in NG guarantees was due to adjustments on foreign currency guarantees (local and third currencies) amounting to P2.95 billion and P4.86 billion, respectively,” the agency said.

This outpaced the net availments on both external and domestic guarantees amounting to P250 million and P180 million, respectively.

The government borrows money to plug the expected deficit in its budget, as well as to pay maturing debt.

For 2018, the national government is also programmed to borrow P889.51 billion from local and foreign lenders.