Outstanding Public Sector Debt improves to 61.9% of GDP as of end-June 2014
P7.5 trillion debt reflects decrease of P113.4 billion from end-March 2014 figure
Outstanding Public Sector Debt was recorded at P7.5 trillion as of June 2014, improving to 61.9% of GDP from 70.2% a year ago. Furthermore, public sector debt fell by 1.5% equivalent to P113.4 billion from the end-March 2014 level of P7.6 trillion as domestic and external debt decreased by 1.0% and 2.8% to P5.3 trillion and P2.2 trillion, respectively. As of end-June 2014, 71.1% of total outstanding public sector debt is owed to domestic creditors while 28.9% is sourced from external creditors.
Non-financial public sector debt was similarly up, rising 2.1% on a quarter-on-quarter basis to P6.0 trillion despite the decrease in liabilities of the 14 Monitored Government Corporations (MNFGCs) as intra-government debt within the sector declined by almost 70%. Finally, the P43.9 billion decline in public financial corporation debt coupled with an increase in intra-sector holdings, resulted in lower consolidated public sector debt despite a rise in the other sectors.
National Treasurer Roberto B. Tan, who recently re-assumed his post after a stint at the World Bank, welcomed the news saying: “We fully intend to stay the course on the path set early on in this administration. The downward trajectory of debt attests to our commitment for a more fiscally sustainable future.”
Year-on-Year General Government Debt-to-GDP lower at 37.3% as of end-Sept 2014
The end-September 2014 General Government (GG) Debt stood at P4.6 trillion or 37.3% of GDP, 2.4 percentage points (ppt) lower from 39.7% a year ago. GG debt includes outstanding debt of the National Government (NG), the Central Bank Board of Liquidators (CB-BOL), Social Security Institutions (SSIs) and Local Government Units, less intra-sector holdings of government securities including those held by the Bond Sinking Fund/Securities Stabilization Fund.
General Government debt primarily went down as Social Security Institutions purchased more government debt in their portfolio of investments. In addition, high nominal GDP growth of 9.3% contributed in reducing the debt ratio.
Contributing to total GG debt, end-September 2014 net National Government (NG) debt increased by P141.6 billion, 2.9% higher from a year ago. The increase was driven by higher Domestic debt, which comprises 62.3% of the consolidated total NG obligations. Year-on-year, domestic NG debt grew by 3.7% while external debt went up by 1.6%.
In contrast, Local Government debt declined by 3.1%, marking a P2.2 billion decline in liabilities from the same period last year. Meanwhile, Social Security Institutions such as GSIS and SSS did not contribute to the stock of debt but increased their holdings of Government Securities by 4.8%, adding P22.5 billion to the level from a year ago.