Nat’l government’s debt down 0.9% in August

Manila: The national government’s (NG) total outstanding debt went down by 0.9 percent to PHP15.55 trillion as of end-August this year.

Data released by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) on Tuesday showed that of the overall debt stock, 69.40 percent are domestic securities while 30.60 percent are external obligations.

“This decline was primarily attributed to the revaluation effect of peso appreciation and the net repayment of external debt,” the BTr said.

The domestic debt amounted to PHP10.79 trillion, slightly higher than the PHP10.75 trillion in July, due to the issuance of government securities amounting to PHP45.05 billion.

External debt, meanwhile, went down by 3.6 percent to PHP4.76 trillion.

The BTr said the decline was brought about mainly by peso appreciation, which trimmed PHP194.90 billion, as well as net repayments of PHP4.17 billion.

Source: Philippines News Agency