The depreciation of the peso also impacted on foreign debt and increased the peso value of outstanding obligations by some P34.3 billion. Weak peso boosts govt debtForeign debt up by P60B, domestic downTHE national government’s outstan-ding debt in June increased by P60 billion and pushed the total liability in the first half of 2016 up by P130 billion, or 2.24 percent, to P5.94 trillion. The increase was entirely due to higher foreign debt, which jumped by 144.64 billion to almost P2.12 trillion and accounted for 35.6 percent of the total debt. The issuance of government securities in June contributed P31.12 billion while the depreciation of the peso against the US dollar added P130 million to the domestic debt, the Bureau of Treasury said. The BTr further explained that foreign exchange fluctuations against the US dollar and third currencies further increased the peso value of external guaranteed debt by P1.85 billion and P9.70 billion, respectively.

Source: Manila Times August 07, 2016 13:07 UTC