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PRUDENT
debt management and the strong peso allowed the national
government to reduce its debt as of end-October 2007 by
3 percent year-on-year to P3.798 trillion, Finance
Secretary Margarito Teves reported Thursday.
He said the paid debt reduced the
year-ago total of P3.914 trillion by P116 billion.
Government planners anticipated the
exchange rate to range from P46 up to P48 per dollar in
2007, but the actual average rate, based on initial
calculations by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, stood
at P46.1 per dollar.
Teves said only the P6-billion net
depreciation of third currencies against the US dollar
prevented the government from incurring a larger debt
reduction.
He added the reduction was consistent
with the goal of reducing national-government debt to
more or less 59 percent of the gross domestic product in
2007; and further down to 54 percent for this year.
On end-September figures, Teves traced
the cut of P37 billion to the “P1-billion net repayments
and P42- billion appreciation of the peso versus the US
dollar.”
On the other hand, there was a
P3.2-billion [0.1-percent] rise in government’s local
debt to P2.209 trillion that resulted from the result of
the net issuance of government securities during the
period, but the increase was easily swamped by the cut
in foreign-debt component (2.3 percent) to P1.589
trillion.
Government data showed its securities rose
to P2.186 trillion in October from P2.183 trillion in
September.
Contingent debt, or obligations not
directly owed by the national government but on which it
gave cover, was also cut by P10.7 billion to P502.8
billion in October from P513.5 billion in September, or
by 2.1 percent. Teves gave the same reason for the
reduction as the one he gave for the total debt.
Domestic contingent debt totaled P65
billion and the foreign amount totaled P437.9 billion.
Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran gave
assurances that the government’s indebted state relative
to GDP would continue to drop whether or not
international rating agencies are watching as the
fiscal-reform measures kick in and the collection arms
gain greater efficiency and competence.
He was referring to an earlier statement
from credit-rating firm Moody’s Investor Service that it
may upgrade the Philippine sovereign credit standing
should it find proof that Manila’s debt load has
progressively improved relative to the size of its
economy. --J. Vallecera |
