The national government’s (NG) outstanding debt totaled to P8.6 trillion as of end-April 2020, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said.
Data released by the BTr yesterday showed that the debt level as of end-April posted a 10.4 percent increase from the year ago figure of P7.79 trillion.
It also saw a 1.5 percent increment from the end-March level, which the BTr said was primarily due to domestic securities issuance and external loan availments.
“To date, NG debt grew by 11.2 percent for the first four months of the year driven by the 5.1 percent increase in external debt and the 14.4 percent increment to domestic liabilities,” the BTr said.
Of the total outstanding debt stock, 33 percent were sourced externally while 67 percent are domestic debt.
NG domestic debt amounted to P5.86 trillion, 12.6 percent up year-on-year, and 0.9 percent higher compared to the end-March 2020 level.
“The end-March figure was subsequently adjusted to reflect the P300 billion short-term borrowing through the repurchase agreement with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP),” the BTr said.
“For April, net issuance of domestic government securities amounted to P50.82 billion while peso appreciation merely diminished the value of onshore dollar bonds by P0.17 billion,” it added.
The BTr said that to date, domestic debt has increased by 14.4 percent since the beginning of the year as a result of net debt issuance and the short-term borrowing from BSP.
Meanwhile the national government’s external debt of P2.74 trillion was six percent higher versus the previous year’s level, and 2.7 percent up from end-March.
“For April, net availment of external loans amounted to P87.34 billion as part of the government’s effort to raise concessional financing to address the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic,” the BTr said.
On the other hand, the BTr said currency adjustments trimmed P15.1 billion, particularly through local currency appreciation.
From the start of the year, national government external debt has increase by 5.1 percent, the BTr said.
