The National Government (NG) incurred an outstanding total debt of P9.369 trillion as of end-September, more than 18.5 percent or P1.46 trillion from same period last year of P7.907 trillion, according to data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr).

Compared to end-August, the NG debt was down by 2.6 percent or P246.15 billion from P9.615 trillion after the BTr repaid P300 billion of loan via a repurchase agreement to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on September 29. It took out a fresh P540 billion cash advance in the first week of October to finance the budget shortfall due to COVID-19 expenses.

NG debt stock was up by 21.2 percent or P1.637 trillion when compared to end-2019 level of P7.731 trillion.

Based on BTr numbers, 68.7 percent of the total outstanding NG debt were domestic borrowings while 31.3 percent were external borrowings or foreign debt.

As of end-September, NG domestic debt stood at P6.438 trillion, down by 4.1 percent or P274.64 billion from what was reported end-August of P6.713 trillion because of loan repayment.

The total NG domestic gross borrowing amounted to P2.639 trillion, of which P1.019 trillion were in Treasury Bills, P492.86 billion in Treasury Bonds and P827.11 billion in Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs), plus the BSP cash advance.

Gross maturities, in the meantime, stood at P1.327 trillion, or P629.07 billion for T-Bills, P309.39 billion for T-Bonds and P300 billion for the BSP. “To date, domestic debt has increased by P1.310 trillion or 25.6 percent since the beginning of the year,” the BTr said.

As for NG external debt, this reached P2.930 trillion as of end-September, one percent or P28.49 billion more than end-August, and for September alone, the increase in foreign debt was due to the P33.22 billion net availment. From the start of the year, the external debt increased by 12.6 percent or P326.81 billion.

“Currency fluctuations on both US dollar and third-currency denominated foreign loans trimmed P3.65 billion and P1.08 billion, respectively, from the peso value equivalent,” said the BTr, basing this calculation to a peso value of P48.483 as of end-Aug 2020 and P48.422 as of end-September.

BTr also reported a P550.27 billion external financing for January to September vis-à-vis debt repayment of P123.19 billion. Also during this period, the NG received P19.31 billion in project loans and P344.89 billion in program loans.

The total offshore bond issuances as of end-September have reached P186.06 billion or $3.84 billion. These were a combination of US dollar bonds, Euro bonds, Japanese yen bonds, Chinese yuan bonds and peso global bonds.

NG guaranteed obligations, as reported, fell by 0.4 percent or P1.60 billion month-over-month to P445.40 billion in September. From January, NG guarantees have dropped 8.9 percent or P43.35 billion.

“The lower level of guarantees was due to the net redemption of both local and external guarantees amounting to P0.16 billion and P1.59 billion, respectively,” the BTr noted. It added that the strong peso versus the US dollar “reduced the value of external guarantees by P0.27 billion offsetting the effect of third-currency appreciation amounting to P0.42 billion.”