End-Oct. PHL govt debt balloons to P4.7 trillion

The Philippine government owes foreign and domestic creditors P4.679 trillion as of end-October 2010, data released by the Bureau of Treasury over the weekend showed. The government’s latest debt stock is up P15.3 billion or 0.3 percent from P4.664 trillion recorded as of end-September 2010. Of the total, P1.982 trillion or 42.4 percent is owed to foreign creditors and P2.697 trillion or 57.6 percent to domestic creditors. The bureau said the debt stock rose largely on government’s foreign debt of P16 billion which, however, was offset by the appreciation of the peso against the US dollar which translated to P36 billion in foreign exchange gains. Domestic debt also dropped by P1 billion in the same comparable period as government settled more debt than it issued. On the other hand, government’s contingent debt — which consists largely of national government guarantees — dropped P1.5 billion to P559.2 billion. This was because of the general weakness of the dollar against the peso and other currencies, the bureau said. — VS, GMANews.TV