AdChoiceTV News — As of November 2020, The country’s outstanding debt rose further to P10.13 trillion as the government borrowed more funds from the domestic market, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) reported yesterday.
Latest data from the Treasury showed that the debt pile as of end-November 2020 was 1.1 percent higher than the P10.03 trillion recorded in October 2020.about:blankabout:blank
Since the start of 2020, the national government’s debt stock has ballooned by P2.4 trillion or 31.1 percent due to higher funding requirements for COVID-19 response and recovery measures.
Broken down, the BTr said the bulk or 71 percent of the total outstanding debt came from domestic sources, while the remaining 29 percent came from external lenders.
Domestic debt amounted to P7.19 trillion, 1.6 percent higher compared to the end-October 2020 level of P7.08 trillion due to the net issuance of government securities, the BTr said.
The BTr said gross domestic borrowings from January to November 2020 also reached P2.38 trillion, comprised of P465.31 billion in Treasury bills (net of redemptions), P631.74 billion in Treasury bonds, P738.54 billion in retail Treasury bonds (net of the P88.56 billion domestic bond exchange), and P540 billion in short-term borrowings from the BSP.
On the other hand, the national government’s external debt as of end-November last year eased by 0.3 percent to P2.94 trillion from P2.95 trillion in the previous month.
“For November, the lower figure was primarily due to the P10.74 billion net effect of currency adjustments, particularly peso appreciation offsetting net foreign loan availments amounting to P2.55 billion,” the BTr said.
The BTr said gross borrowings from external sources reached P583.64 billion in the first 11 months of 2020, which included P32.93 billion in project loans, P364.64 billion in program loans, and P186.06 billion in offshore issuances.
Including domestic debt, the national government’s gross borrowings totaled P2.96 trillion from January to November 2020, almost 99 percent of the P3 trillion borrowing program for the whole year.
According to budget documents, the Philippines’ outstanding debt is seen to hit P10.16 trillion by the end of 2020, translating to a debt-to-gross domestic product level of 53.9 percent. This would be higher than the record low debt-to-GDP level of 39.6 percent in 2019.
Meanwhile, the BTr said guaranteed obligations as of end-November 2020 decreased by 1.1 percent to P442.83 billion from P447.85 billion in the previous month.
“The drop in the level of guarantees was due to the net repayment on both domestic and external guarantees amounting to P4.26 billion, while local currency appreciation against the dollars further trimmed the peso value of external guarantees by P1.40 billion,” the BTr said. — via Albert Rovic Tan / AdChoiceTV News
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