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THE
country’s external debts lifted by nearly 3 percent in
2007 to $54.9 billion from $53.4 billion in just a year,
pushed higher by Manila’s net borrowing activities
during a period when its economic managers actually made
debt prepayments.
But
while the external debt number rose by $1.6 billion, the
total foreign debt as percent of local output, or the
gross domestic product (GDP), fell to 38.1 percent from
45.4 percent in 2006.
“The
level reflected an increase of $511 million, or 0.9
percent, from $54.4 billion as of end-September 2007.
“Year-on-year, the country’s external debt rose by $1.6
billion, or 2.9 percent, from $53.4 billion as of
end-2006,” Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando
M. Tetangco Jr. said in a statement.
Nevertheless, he said the major external debt ratios
continued to improve due to the higher levels of
aggregate output, foreign-exchange receipts and
international reserves.
External
debt as percent of the gross national product (GNP), for
example, improved to 34.9 percent from 41.7 percent in
2006.
External
debt as percent of both GNP and GDP is indicative of a
country with improving capacity to service its maturing
foreign obligations.
“The
external debt-service ratio, or the percentage of total
principal and interest payments to total exports of
goods and receipts from services and income, was
estimated at 9.6 percent in 2007, an improvement of 2.2
percentage points from the 11.8 percent recorded last
year.
“The
debt-service ratio has thus remained well below the
20-percent to 25-percent international benchmark,
indicating that the country has sufficient
foreign-exchange earnings to service obligations
maturing during the current period,” Tetangco said.
The
gross international reserves at end-2007 stood at 33.8
billion, or 4.8 times the level of short-term debt based
on original maturity and 2.9 times the level of
short-term debt based on the remaining maturity concept.
Tetangco
also said the increase in Philippine debt stock in the
final three months last year resulted from increased
holdings of Philippine debt papers by nonresidents
amounting to $539 million.
Net
principal payments of foreign debt amounting to $439
million were offset by upward foreign-exchange
revaluation adjustments totaling $395 million also
attributed to the weak US dollar. |
