Government debt down to P6.83 T in May

MANILA, Philippines — The national government’s debt pile as of end-May slightly declined to P6.83 trillion from P6.87 trillion a month earlier due to the net redemption on both domestic and foreign debt, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) reported yesterday.

Of the amount, 64.75 percent or P4.42 trillion was borrowed domestically, while the remaining P2.41 trillion was sourced externally.

Domestic obligations declined 1.7 percent from P4.5 trillion a month earlier.

“There was a P74.93 billion net redemption of government securities in May, which was slightly tempered by the P410 million effect of the weaker peso,” the BTr said.

To date, the BTR said domestic obligations declined 0.4 percent since the beginning of the year.

On the other hand, the national government’s external debt rose by 1.4 percent to P2.41 trillion as of end-May from the P2.38 trillion posted a month ago.

The BTr attributed the increase in foreign debt to the weaker peso, which increased the value of foreign debt by P37.66 billion.

“This was slightly trimmed by net repayments on external loans amounting to P4.89 billion and the impact of the net depreciation on third currency-denominated debt amounting to P390 million,” the BTr said.

From the end-December 2017 level, external debt has increased by P197.06 billion or 8.9 percent.

Meanwhile, BTr data showed the national government’s guaranteed obligations in May decreased 0.4 percent to P492.3 billion from P494.45 billion in April.

The Treasury attributed this to the net redemption on domestic guarantees amounting to P8.37 billion.

This outpaced the net availments on external guarantees, which reached P460 million, as well as the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations on both dollar and third-currency denominated guarantees amounting to P4.61 billion and P1.15 billion, respectively.