THE country’s consolidated General Government (GG) debt stood at P6.79 trillion in the third quarter of 2019, the Department of Finance (DOF) said, posting an increase from the previous quarter and prior year’s levels.
The DOF said in a statement over the weekend the P6.79 trillion figure marked an increase of 0.3 percent from the second-quarter level of P6.77 trillion, and was 10.4 percent higher than the P6.15 trillion posted in the same quarter the previous year.
However, it was down by 0.4 percentage point to the ratio of 37.2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), from the debt-to-GDP ratio of 37.6 percent in the previous three-month period.
On the other hand, it saw an increase of 0.9 percentage point from the debt-to-GDP ratio of 36.3 percent in the same quarter the year before.
GG debt includes the outstanding debt of the national government (NG), social security institutions (SSI) and local government units, minus intra-sector debt holding of government securities including those held by the Bond Sinking Fund (BSF).
Of the total GG debt, P4.21 trillion or 62 percent came from domestic borrowings and the remaining P2.58 trillion or 38 percent from external loans.
The NG debt net of the BSF amounted to P7.32 trillion, posting a slight increase of 0.2 percent from the second quarter level of P7.31 trillion and an increase of 9.9 percent from the same quarter level of P6.66 trillion in the previous year.
Domestic debt dropped by 1.3 percent to P4.73 trillion while external debt increased by 3 percent to P2.58 trillion compared with the P2.51 trillion figure in the second quarter of 2019.
Local government debt increased by 2.3 percent to P105.2 billion compared to the second quarter level of P102.8 billion and was 17.3 percent higher than the P89.7 billion recorded in the same period last year.
SSIs such as the Government Service Insurance System and the Social Security System did not contribute to the debt stock, but simultaneously decreased their intra-sector holdings of government securities by 0.3 percent compared with the second quarter of 2019.
