RP debts rise as of end-August due to higher foreign borrowing

The Philippines’ debts rose from January to August this year as it borrowed more from foreign sources, data from the country’s Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) indicated.

The country’s total obligations rose to P4.321 trillion from January to August this year, 5.1 percent higher than P4.024 trillion incurred during the same period last year.

Foreign loans increased to P1.922 trillion for the nine-month period, 15.4 percent more than the same period last year.

This was brought about by the national government’s increased sale of foreign currency-denominated securities for the eight-month period compared to the last year.

Of the P1.110 billion worth of foreign-denominated government securities sold, a little more than a billion pesos – or P1.003 billion – were US dollar bonds and notes.

The rest were Japanese Yen bonds worth P26.1 billion while the remaining were Euro bonds reaching P80.7 billion.

In the meantime, domestic debts reached P2.309 trillion, 2.1 percent lower than the P2.359 trillion incurred last year.

Contingent debts – obligations to be paid for by the government if agencies fail to do so – also increased.

Domestic and foreign contingent liabilities climbed to P585.2 billion and P496.2 billion respectively, which in turn are 12.7 percent and 11.1 percent higher than last year