Gov’t debt burden now at P7.8T

The national government’s outstanding debt hit P7.8 trillion at the end of July, representing a 10.8-percent increase —equivalent to P760.47 billion in new obligations—from the level in the same period last year.

According to the Bureau of the Treasury, this was also 7-percent higher than the total debt recorded at the end of 2018, representing new liabilities of P511.55 billion since the beginning of the year.

Of this, the Bureau of the Treasury said 32.7 percent were borrowed from external sources while 67.3 percent were borrowed locally.

On a monthly basis, however, the agency said the July debt load showed a 0.8-percent decline from the previous month’s level, equivalent to P64.58 billion, due to the peso appreciation and domestic redemptions.

“The month-on-month decline in domestic debt reflects the net redemption of government securities amounting to P43.98 billion and P180-million effect of peso appreciation on onshore dollar bonds,” the agency said in a statement.

The Treasury said that the national government’s domestic debt amounted to P5.25 trillion, equivalent to P44.16 billion or 0.8-percent lower compared with the end-June 2019 level. This was, however, P650.13 billion or 14.1-percent higher on an annual basis.

Since the beginning of the year, domestic debt has increased by P473.81 billion or 9.9 percent.

The national government’s external debt of P2.55 trillion was P20.42 billion or 0.8-percent lower from the previous month.

For July, the lower external debt was due to the combined effect of local and third-currency fluctuations, which reduced the value of foreign debt by P18.49 billion and P3.34 billion, respectively. These were tempered by the net availment of foreign loans amounting to P1.41 billion.

External debt has increased by P110.33 billion or 4.5 percent on a year-on-year basis, while adding P37.74 billion or 1.5 percent from its end-December 2018 level.

Total national government-guaranteed obligations decreased by P2.78 billion or 0.6 percent month-on-month to P483.81 billion in July and P0.09 billion or 0.02-percent lower than its level a year ago.

“For the month, the reduction in guarantees was due to the net repayment of domestic guarantees amounting to P320 million and the effect of local and third-currency fluctuations that reduced the value of external guarantees amounting to P2.46 billion,” the Treasury said.

From the end-December 2018 level, total national government-guaranteed debt was still lower by P3.77 billion or 0.8 percent.