Public sector debt hits P7.7T

MANILA, Philippines - The country’s public sector debt reached P7.7 trillion as of June this year as several state-owned firms borrowed funds to fund its operations.

Based on latest data from the Department of Finance, the outstanding public sector debt which represents the combined outstanding liabilities of the government, local government units, and government-owned and controlled corporations was P42.4 billion higher than the end-March level of P7.69 trillion.

The latest OPSD is equivalent to 70.2 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), down from 71.3 percent as of March and 73.1 percent as of end-June last year.

Total domestic debt of the public sector amounted to P5.52 trillion, down P23 billion from March 2013. Foreign debt, on the other hand, increased to P2.21 trillion.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, consolidated non-financial public sector debt went up 4.8 percent to P5.7 trillion, equivalent to 51.8 percent of GDP. This was attributed to the P169.8 billion increase in the national government, the local government units (LGUs) and the increase in debt of both the domestic and foreign liabilities of the 14 major non-financial government corporations (MNFGCs).

The outstanding debt of the financial public corporations decreased 2.7 percent to P3.8 trillion.

The ratio of general government debt to GDP increased to 39.2 percent from 38.5 percent as of March but lower than the 41.2 percent in the same quarter last year.

GG debt includes National Government with Bond Sinking Fund (BSF), the Central Bank-Board of Liquidators (CB-BOL), Social Security Institutions (SSIs) and the Local Government Units (LGUs) less intra-sector debt holdings.