General gov’t debt down 37.6% of GDP as of June

THE COUNTRY’S consolidated General Government (GG) debt stood at P6.8 trillion in the second quarter of 2019, an increase of 0.7 percent from the first quarter level of P6.7 trillion and 13.4 percent increase from the same period last year. Of the total, 62.9 percent or P4.3 trillion are domestic borrowings and 37.1 percent or P2.5 trillion are external.

As a percentage of gross domestic product, GG debt registered at 37.6 percent, down by 0.4 percentage points from the 38.0 percent recorded as of the first quarter of 2019 and 1.5 percentage points increase from last year’s level of 36.1 percent.

National Government (NG) debt net of the Bond Sinking Fund posted at P7.3 trillion, a slight increase of 0.8 percent from the first quarter level of P7.2 trillion and an increase of 12.7 percent from the same quarter level last year. Domestic debt grew by 1.9 percent while external debt decreased by 1.2 percent compared with the first quarter of 2019.

Local government debt increased by 3.6 percent or P3.6 billion compared to the first quarter level and a 17.4 percent increase over the same period last year. Meanwhile, Social Secu

rity Institutions such as the GSIS and the SSS did not contribute to the debt stock while simultaneously increasing their intra-sector holdings of Government Securities by 2.2 percent compared with the first quarter of 2019.

GG debt includes the outstanding debt of the National Government (NG), the Central Bank Board of Liquidators (CB-BOL), Social

Security Institutions (SSIs), and Local Government Units (LGUs), minus intra-sector debt holdings of government securities including those held by the Bond Sinking Fund (BSF).