THE country's total outstanding debt climbed to P13.02 trillion as of last August, the Bureau of Treasury reported Friday.
THE country's total outstanding debt climbed to P13.02 trillion as of
last August, the Bureau of Treasury reported Friday.
The figure is P133.64 billion or one percent higher than the record
P12.89 trillion posted in July. The bureau attributed the increase to
the issuance of domestic securities and currency adjustments.
The
government's debt has risen by P1.29 trillion or 11 percent since
December 2021, of which 68.7 percent were domestic borrowings.
The
government's domestic debt ran to P8.94 trillion, higher by P111.21
billion (1.3 percent) than the July level.
The August increase in
domestic debt resulted from the issuance of P109.43 billion in
government securities and the P1.78 billion impact of the peso's
depreciation against the US dollar. The domestic debt portfolio has gone
up by P772.98 billion since the beginning of the year, the bureau said.
The increase reflected the continued reliance on domestic borrowing to
soften the impact of currency fluctuations. Michael Ricafort, the chief
economist of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., told The Manila Times
in a Viber message that higher global interest rates would push up the
government's interest rate payments and could lead to more borrowing.
Ricafort said tax reform and other fiscal measures, along with faster
economic growth, will help ease the government's debt-to-GDP ratio to
below the international threshold of 60 percent in the coming years.
Also on Friday, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced that the
annual inflation rate for September will stay within the 6.6 percent and
7.4 percent range. In a statement, the BSP said inflation in September
is likely to be driven by higher electricity rates and prices of
essential food commodities, along with the peso's depreciation.
It said
a drop in local fuel prices and lower meat prices could help ease
inflation.
The BSP said it will "continue to monitor very closely
emerging price developments to enable timely intervention to prevent the
further broadening of price pressures, in accordance with the BSP's
price stability mandate."
Ricafort said a weaker peso and higher
electricity rates could be "major catalysts" for inflation. The World
Economic Forum has predicted that inflation would remain high not only
in the Philippines but worldwide. "With inflation soaring and real wages
falling, the global cost of living crisis is hitting the most vulnerable
hardest," says Saadia Zahidi, managing director at the World Economic
Forum.
"As policymakers aim to control inflation while minimizing the
impact on growth, they will need to ensure specific support to those who
need it most. The stakes could not be higher," Zahidi said. On a more
positive note, the Treasury bureau said the government's budget deficit
dropped by 40.43 percent, to P72 billion, in August from P121 billion a
year ago. It said government spending decreased from P958 billion to
P833 billion (13.06 percent) between January and August this year. This
is P125.2 billion lower than the 2021 figure. Government expenses grew
by 6.39 percent year over year in August, to P404.5 billion from P380.2
billion. But revenue growth outpaced expenses by P73.2 billion, to
P332.4 billion from P259.3 billion last year.
The bureau said 93 percent
(P308.4 billion) of the revenue came from tax collection and the
remaining 7 percent (P24.0 billion) were non-tax collections.
The
government's collection of P2.4 trillion in August also surpassed the
previous year's performance by 18.09 percent (P362.9 billion).
It
already made up 72 percent of the P3.3 trillion targeted for the year.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) brought in P228.9 billion for the
month, or P42.9 billion more than the collections a year ago.
The BIR's
year-to-date total uptake of P1.6 trillion was also higher by 12.25
percent (P170.2 billion) than the previous year's P1.4 trillion. The
Bureau of Customs (BoC) recorded its highest year-on-year growth of
47.84 percent in August, with revenue of P78.9 billion.
The BoC's
collection as of end-August stood at P559.2 billion, a 35.64 percent
(P146.9 billion) increase over last year. Tiziana Celine Piatos
