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By Chino S. Leyco Reporter
The Philippines’ outstanding
external debt was slightly higher in the first quarter of the year
than in the same period last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)
said Monday.
In a statement, the BSP said
outstanding foreign debt stood at $54.6 billion in January to March,
wee higher than the $54 billion recorded in the same period last
year but slightly lower than the 2007 level of $54.9 billion.
The central bank said total
outstanding debt as a percentage of aggregate output declined to
32.4 percent from 35.0 percent last year and 40.8 percent in March
in 2007.
Despite the increase, the
Philippines’ capacity to service its maturing foreign obligations
improved, with its external debt dipping as a percentage of the
domestic economy, which is measured by the country’s gross
domestic product.
In March, external debt ratio
also improved to 35.5 percent from 44.2 percent in the previous year
and 38.1 percent last year.
“The declining ratio indicates
the country’s improving capacity to service its maturing foreign
obligations,” the central bank said.
More than half of the debt stock
was denominated in dollars and 28.5 percent in Japanese yen.
Multi-currency loans from the Asian Development Bank and the World
Bank comprising 9.6 percent and 16.2 percent, respectively, were in
16 other currencies.
The BSP said the continued
weakening of the US dollar against the Japanese yen and the euro
resulted in high positive foreign exchange revaluation adjustment of
$2.4 billion, almost negating the impact of large net principal
payment of P2.8 billion and causing the debt stock to decline to
only $327 billion.
Prepayment during the period
totaled $322 million of which $298 million pertained to maturities
in the 2009 and beyond.
Gross international reserves,
which continued to reach peak levels, stood at $36.6 billion at
end-March. The amount is equivalent to 5.5 times the level of
short-term debt based on the original maturity concept and 3.4 times
the level of short-term debt based on the remaining maturity
concept.
The maturity profile of the
country’s external debt remained predominantly medium to long
term, accounting for 87.8 percent of the total. These loans, with
original tenors of more than one year, had a weighted average
maturity of 19.7 years, longer than the 18.9 years recorded in
December 2007. Public sector borrowings had an average term of 21.4
years, much longer than the private sector’s 11.3 years.
Short-term external debt represented 12.2 percent of total.
Total consolidated public sector
external debt rose to $40.1 billion, from last quarter’s $37.7
billion with share to total also rising to 73.5 percent from 68.6
percent in December last year.
Private sector external debt
dropped to $14.5 billion from $17.3 billion in December last year;
share to total also declined to 26.5 percent from 31.4 percent.
Official creditors (consisting of
multilateral institutions, such as the Asian Development Bank and
the World Bank, and bilateral creditors mainly the Japan Bank for
International Cooperation) accounted for 42.0 percent of the
country’s total external debt, followed by foreign holders of
bonds and notes at 35.1 percent, and foreign banks and other
financial institutions, 15.5 percent. The rest of the creditors (7.4
percent) were mostly foreign suppliers.
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