Stronger peso helps give slight downward push to PH debts

The stronger peso in September slowed debt accumulation, slightly bringing down the national government’s outstanding obligations to P7.908 trillion.

The national government’s outstanding debt declined 0.4 percent in September from the record P7.939 trillion in August, the latest Bureau of the Treasury data released on Monday, Nov 4, showed.

But compared to a year ago, year-to-date debt climbed 10.4 percent from P7.16 trillion during the same month in 2018.

Two-thirds of total debt or P5.258 trillion was from domestic sources.

In a statement, the Treasury attributed the slight month-on-month decline in local debts last September to redemption of P14.37 billion in government securities and a reduction of P170 million in dollar debt value because of a stronger peso./TSB