THE outstanding debt of the national government as of end-March 2017 declined by P18.43 billion, or 0.3 percent, to P6.19 trillion from a year ago due to the stronger peso and debt repayments, the Bureau of the Treasury said over the weekend.
The Treasury said 36 percent or P2.222 trillion of the debt were secured externally while 64 percent or P3.968 trillion were borrowed in the domestic market.
“The national government’s domestic debt of P3,968 billion went down by P17.35 billion (0.4 percent) for the month. The decrease was predominantly due to the net redemption of government securities amounting to P17.69 billion and the stronger peso that reduced the value of onshore dollar bonds,” the Treasury said.
“This were tempered by the national government’s restoration of assumed obligations under PNB amounting to P0.35 billion,” it said.
The national government’s external debt of P2.222 trillion was P1.08 billion or 0.05 percent lower compared to the end-February 2017 level. The value of external debt was reduced by P4.10 billion owing to the combined effect of the stronger peso and net repayments of foreign obligations.
“These more than offset the upward adjustment in third currency-denominated debt worth P3.02 billion,” the agency said.
Total national government’s guaranteed obligations decreased P5.03 billion or 1.0 percent month-on-month to P516.80 billion in March. The reduction in guarantees was primarily attributed to net repayments on both domestic and foreign guarantees amounting to P3.54 billion and P2.47 billion, respectively, along with the P0.21-billion effect of peso appreciation.
The Treasury said these far outpaced the foreign exchange revaluation adjustments on foreign guarantees (third currencies) amounting to P1.19 billion. From the end-December 2016 level, NG guarantees inched up by P5.03 billion, or 0.6 percent.