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DEBTS of
the national government (NG) dropped by P9 billion to
P3.872 trillion in April because of repayments and
foreign currency adjustments.
Data
from the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) show about P1.570
trillion, or 41 percent, of the outstanding borrowings
are owned to foreign lenders and P2.302 trillion, or 59
percent, to domestic creditors.
According to the BTr, there was a P24 billion, or 1.5
percent, drop in foreign debts during the month.
This was
traced to net repayments totaling P17 billion. The
appreciation of so-called third currencies against the
US dollar, equivalent to P20 billion in terms of the
national government debt, helped pare Manila’s
borrowings.
Third
currencies pertain mostly to the euro and the Japanese
yen.
At the
same time, however, the bureau said the peso’s weakness,
after last year’s stellar performance, added P13 billion
to the foreign debt.
Local
debts also grew by P15 billion in April owing to the net
sale of government securities.
As a
result, the NG’s indebted state went down by P3.881
trillion from March.
However,
contingent debts, or IOUs the NG indirectly contracted
in the form of guarantees in favor of debts of various
government units, also fell by P512 billion during the
month.
The
Treasury said there was a drop in NG contingent debts by
P8 billion from the end of March level P520 billion.
“This
was a decline resulting from the combined effects of the
P2-billion net repayments, the P10-billion net
appreciation of third currencies against the US dollar
and the P4-billion depreciation of the peso versus the
dollar during the month,” the Treasury said. |
