Outstanding Public Sector Debt-to-GDP listed at 55.8% as of end-September 2015

Down 4.5 percentage points as government oversees vast improvement among GOCCs

Outstanding Public Sector Debt (OPSD) was listed at P7.3 trillion as of September 2015, down by 4.5 pp to 55.8% of GDP from 60.3% during the same period last year. This figure marks the lowest OPSD debt-to-GDP ratio ever since the earliest comparable period of 1998, and is a marked difference from 2009, when it stood at 70.9%, a 15.1 percentage point (ppt) difference.

The Outstanding Public Sector Debt covers the general government debt, borrowings of both the 14 non-financial public corporations and the financial public corporations, less the intra-sector debt holdings.

Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima said, “We will continue to closely monitor GOCC debt to ensure they remain healthy and resilient from external volatility. Over the past 6 years we have seen our GOCCs get their acts together. As long as there’s still room for improvement, you can expect the government to continue pushing for progress.”

Despite the increase in the General Government Debt which includes the National Government (NG), Central Bank Board of Liquidators (CB-BOL), Social Security Institutions (SSIs) and Local Government Units (LGUs) net the intra-sector debt holdings, the OPSD still ended in a lower level as of September 2015 as compared to last year. This is mainly due to higher National Government/GOCC deposits with the GFIs and the corresponding increase in GFI deposits with the BSP. In addition, there was a drop in the outstanding obligations of the 14 monitored GOCCs.

The shift in the NG/GOCC deposits to the GFIs is a demonstration of compliance to Department Circular 00-2015 issued in June 2015. The circular requires all NGAs, GOCCs, and LGUs to maintain their accounts with the GFIs as part of the Government’s effort to strengthen its overall fiscal position. The increase in GFI deposits was also driven by their commitment to the GCG to increase their deposits from the private sector.

On the other hand, the P81.4 billion decrease in the non-financial public corporations’ debt primarily emanates from PSALM as a result of its improved liquidity position.

The combined borrowings of financial and non-financial public corporations as a share of GDP, has declined to 19.0% from 23.0% of last year due to a sturdy economic growth.

The OPSD ended with a mix of 68.9% sourced from domestic creditors and the remaining 31.1% from external creditors as of end-September 2015.