Public sector debt down to P7.5T as of end June ’14

THE DEBT of the national government and local government units combined slid by 1.5 percent to P7.5 trillion as of the middle of 2014, the latest Department of Finance (DOF) data released yesterday showed.

In a statement, the DOF reported that the outstanding public sector debt as of end-June last year was lower than the P7.6 trillion at end-March. This was attributed to the decline in both domestic and foreign liabilities.

As of the end of June, debt from domestic sources slid  by 1 percent quarter-on-quarter to P5.3 trillion or 71 percent of the total, while external debt decreased by 2.8 percent to P2.2 trillion.

The share of outstanding public sector debt to the gross domestic product (GDP) also improved to 61.9 percent as of June last year from 70.2 percent a year ago.

According to National Treasurer Roberto B. Tan, “the downward trajectory of debt attests to our commitment for a more fiscally sustainable future.”

“We fully intend to stay the course on the path set early on in this administration,” he said.

As for the general government (GG) debt—the aggregated outstanding liabilities of the national government, the Central Bank Board of Liquidators or CB-BOL, social security institutions and local government units (LGUs) stood at P4.6 trillion as of the end of September.

This excludes intra-sector holdings of government securities including those held by the Bond Sinking Fund/Securities Stabilization Fund.

As of the end of September, the GG debt to GDP ratio likewise slid to 37.3 percent from 39.7 percent a year ago.

“General government debt primarily went down as social security institutions purchased more government debt in their portfolio of investments. In addition, high nominal GDP growth of 9.3 percent contributed in reducing the debt ratio,” the DOF explained.