THE national government’s (NG) outstanding debt increased to P7.763 trillion at the end of January, with borrowing rising from both domestic and foreign sources, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said Monday.
BTr said outstanding debt rose 3.6% from a year earlier, and was up 0.4% from the 2019 year-end total.
“The level of NG debt reflects a P32.06 billion or 0.4% increment from the end-December 2019 level predominantly due to net availment of foreign financing,” BTr said.
Outstanding debt from domestic lenders accounted for nearly 66% of the total at P5.123 trillion. Domestic debt rose 4.4% higher year-on-year but was 0.1% lower compared to the end of 2019.
“For January, the (month on month) reduction in domestic debt was mainly due to the net redemption of government securities amounting to P3.86 billion, which more than offset the P0.03 billion effect of peso depreciation on onshore dollar bonds,” it said.
About 99.98% of domestic debt consisted of government securities while the remainder was in the form of loans.
Foreign sources provided the remainder, or P2.639 trillion, up 2.1% from the year prior and up 1.4% from the end of the previous year.
The treasury said the month-on-month increase in external debt was due to net availments of foreign loans worth P33.51 billion, as well as the “P2.72 billion effect of local currency depreciation on dollar-denominated debt.”
Loans accounted for 39.86% of the external borrowing total or P1.052 trillion while the remainder of 60.09% came from debt securities issues worth P1.586 trillion.
NG guaranteed debt stood at P488.294 billion, up 0.2% year-on-year and down 0.1% from the record level posted in December.
“The lower (month-on-month) level of guarantees was due to the net redemption of both local and foreign guarantees amounting to P0.46 billion and P0.39 billion, respectively,” the BTr said.
“This was tempered by local and third-currency exchange rate fluctuations that increased the value of external guarantees by P0.24 billion and P0.16 billion, respectively,” it added. — Beatrice M. Laforga
