DAVAO CITY — The General Government (GG) debt stands at P4.7 trillion as of June this year with a 4.1% increase from P4.5 trillion recorded in the same period last year.
In a statement to the press, the Department of Finance said the main contributor for the increase of the debt “was the P193.2 billion rise in outstanding National Government (NG) debt (net of the Bond Sinking Fund holdings).”
“This increase was primarily brought about by NG financing operations and the impact of peso depreciation on foreign debt comprising 37% of NG debt stock,” it said.
Meanwhile, Local Government debt went down by 3.0% to P67.5 billion compared to last year’s level of P69.7 billion as a result of loan repayments and higher revenue which provided Local Government Units with the funds needed for operating and capital expenditures and the repayment of outstanding obligations.
The DFA said Social Security Institutions, including the GSIS and the SSS, did not contribute to the debt stock, but raised their holdings of Government Securities by 1.0% or P4.6 billion from last year’s level.
“Notwithstanding the increase in nominal GG debt, the figure improved as a percentage of GDP from comparable figures last year. From 37.3% in Q2 2014, the ratio is down to 36.2% as of June 2015. This ratio marks an improvement of 8.1 percentage points (ppt) from the 44.3% posted for the year of 2009, and 6 ppts from the 42.2% registered in 2010,” it said. (davaotoday.com)
