Government debt hit a record P6.5 trillion as of end-October, up by 0.9 percent or P57.19 billion from September’s level, on peso depreciation, the Bureau of the Treasury said in a statement Thursday.
“The effect of local currency depreciation on foreign currency debt considerably affected the end-month level of the national government debt,” the Treasury said.
Data showed that the peso depreciated from 50.830 per US dollar as of end-September 2017 to 51.686 as of end-October 2017.
The end-October debt was also higher than P6.069-trillion recorded in the same period last year.
The debt ratio stood at 41.7 percent of gross domestic product as of the end of the third quarter.
“This continues the downward trajectory for the year after the slight increase to 42.4 percent as of the second quarter 2017 from the end-2016 level of 42.1 percent,” the Treasury aid.
Domestic debt amounted to P4.216 trillion, a 0.7 percent or P27.57-billion increase from the end-September level.
Net issuance of government domestic bonds reached P27.15 billion while the P0.42 billion impact of currency adjustments on onshore dollar bonds added to the increase in domestic debt for the month.
External debt of the government amounted to P2.285 trillion, P29.62 billion or 1.3 percent higher than the previous month.
“This was due to the weakening of the peso against the US dollar which translated to a P37.98-billion increase in the level of external debt. This more than offset the impact of net repayments amounting to P1.67 billion and third-currency depreciation against the US dollar amounting to P6.69 billion,” the Treasury said.
Total national government guaranteed obligations slightly went down by P0.03 billion or 0.005 percent month-on-month to P489.09 billion as of end-October 2017.
“The decline in the national government guarantees was due to the combined effect of net repayments on both domestic and external guarantees amounting to P2.73 billion and P0.24 billion, respectively, and the impact of third currency depreciation on government guarantees amounting to P1.86 billion tempering the P4.83 billion effect of peso depreciation,” it said.