Outstanding Public Sector Debt to GDP Ratio Decreases by 7 Ppt

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P7.6 trillion debt reflects a decrease of P79.0 billion from end December 2013 figure

As of March 2014, Outstanding Public Sector Debt was recorded at P7.6 trillion, equivalent to 64.3% of GDP. The ratio is much lower than the 71.3% level registered in the same period last year, reflecting a full 7-percentage point (ppt) improvement.

The March 2014 debt also represents a P79.0 billion or 1.0% decline over the end-December 2013 level of P7.7 trillion. The reduction is driven by a P91.9 billion or 1.7% decrease in public sector domestic debt, which more than compensated for the P12.9 or 0.6% increase in public sector foreign debt.

The steep decline in Outstanding Public Sector Debt to GDP ratio is primarily attributed to the combination of an increase in GDP levels between the intervening period, a decline in Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) borrowings due to the drop in regular and special deposit accounts, and an increase in intra-sectoral holdings coming from National Government (NG) and Government-owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCC) deposits with the Government-owned Financial Institutions (GFIs), NG securities held by GFIs and BSP, and GFIs’ deposits at BSP.

Non-financial public sector debt went down by 0.6% to P5.9 trillion, equivalent to 49.9% of GDP. This was attributed to the decrease in the indebtedness of the NG and the Local Government Units (LGUs) which fell down by P52.7 billion and P2 billion, respectively; offsetting the P4.2 billion increase in the liabilities of the 14 Monitored Government Corporations (MNFGCs).

General Government (GG) debt, which includes National Government less the Bond Sinking Fund, the CB-BOL, Social Security Institutions (SSIs) and the Local Government Units (LGUs) less intra-sector debt holdings, decreased by 0.9% from the December 2013 level. The ratio of General Government debt to GDP declined to 38.1% from 39.2% as of the end of 2013.

The outstanding debt of financial public corporations decreased by 3.5% to P3.7 trillion. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) debt registered a decrease of 3.6% and also a decline by 3.0% in the debt of the Government Financial Institutions (GFIs) from December 2013 level.

As of March 2014, 29.3% of total outstanding public sector debt is owed to foreign creditors and the remaining 70.7% is owed to domestic creditors.

National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon welcomed the news saying, “As public sector debt continues its downward trajectory, we are seeing how committing to prudent fiscal management has paved the way to ensure that future generations bear a lesser burden for our nation’s development.”