The national government’s total outstanding debt rose to P10.77 trillion as of end-March 2021 due to the net issuance of government securities, data released by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed.
The BTr in a statement yesterday said the national government’s debt went up by 3.5 percent from the end-February 2021 level of P10.41 trillion.
Year-on-year, it jumped by 27.1 percent from March 2020’s P8.48 trillion as the government tapped various sources of funding over the past year for its coronavirus disease 2019 response.
Of the total debt stock, 28 percent is sourced externally while 72 percent is domestic borrowings.
The national government’s domestic debt amounted to P7.74 trillion, 5.2 percent higher compared to the end-February level of P7.36 trillion, which the BTr said was primarily due to the net issuance of government securities including P411.79 billion in retail treasury bonds.
Local debt saw a 33.2 -percent increase from the year- ago level of P5.81 trillion.
The national government’s external debt of P3.03 trillion was 0.4 percent lower from the previous month’s P3.04 trillion.
“For March, lower figures for external debt were due to the favorable net impact of both local- and third-currency fluctuations against the dollar amounting to P6.82 billion and P21.88 billion, respectively. These were more than enough to offset the net availment of foreign loans amounting to P15.15 billion,” the BTr said.
The foreign debt as of March increased 13.7 percent from the P2.66 trillion posted in the same month a year ago.
Meanwhile, the BTr raised P28.2 billion from its treasury bills auction yesterday amid healthy demand for the short-term IOUs.
The auction was almost four times oversubscribed with total bids reaching P94 billion, prompting the auction committee to double the accepted non-competitive bids for the 182-day securities.
With this, the committee raised P28.2 billion compared to the P25 billion initial offer.
The 91-day, 182-day and 364-day treasury bills fetched average rates of 1.306 percent, 1.629 percent and 1.863 percent, respectively, all lower than the rates in the previous auction and versus secondary market levels.
Rosalia de Leon, national treasurer, after the auction said the BTr also opened the tap facility window for the one-year paper for another P7 billion. – Angela Celis
