Govt debt hits record high in Sept

THE national government’s outstanding debt rose to P7.159 trillion in September, as net issuance of government securities, loan availments and exchange rate fluctuations boosted both domestic and foreign borrowings, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) reported on Friday.

In a statement, the Treasury said national government debt increased by P55.922 billion or 0.8 percent from the previous month.

“Of the total stock, 35.92 percent were sourced externally while 64.08 percent were borrowed domestically,” it added.

Domestic borrowings amounting to

P4.578 trillion — up 0.3 percent from the previous month — accounted for the bulk of outstanding debt, while external debt rose 1.6 percent to P2.572 trillion.

Outstanding debt a year earlier stood at P6.444 trillion, with domestic and foreign obligations at P4.188 trillion and P2.255 trillion, respectively.

“For the month, the increase in domestic debt was due to the net issuance of government securities amounting to P14.54 billion and the depreciation of the peso that increased the value of onshore dollar bonds by P0.31 billion,” the bureau noted.

It used a foreign exchange rate of P54.10 against the dollar as of end-September from August’s P53.47:$1.00.

The exchange rate used a year earlier was P50.83:$1.00.

The rise in foreign debt for the month “was due to net availments of foreign loans amounting to P22.52 billion and the P29.68 billion impact of local currency depreciation against the US dollar,” the BTr said.

It pointed out that this was slightly offset by the net depreciation of third- currency denominated debt amounting to P11.13 billion.

Government- guaranteed debt fell by P3.665 billion or 0.8 percent to P481.303 billion from August.

It was down 1.6 percent from September last year.

The month- on- month decrease, the bureau said, resulted from “the effect of net depreciation on third- currency denominated guarantees amounting to P3.23 billion and net redemption on both domestic and external guarantees amounting to P1.80 billion and P2.12 billion, respectively.”

This was tempered by local currency depreciation, which added P3.48 billion, the Treasury said.