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By Chino S. Leyco, Reporter
LOCAL corporates and the public sector took
advantage of a strong peso in the first quarter of the year and
prepaid some of their loans, according to the Bangko Sentral ng
Pilipinas (BSP).
BSP Gov. Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said total
prepayments reached $467.6 million, of which $169.3 million was made
by the public sector, and $298.4 million by the private sector.
The BSP said total prepayments reached $2.995
billion. The government prepaid $1.12 billion of its financial
obligations, while the private sector retired $1.875 billion of its
debts.
Of the public prepayments, the BSP accounted for
$0.805 billion while the national government settled $0.126 billion
of its debt.
The Department of Finance is planning to prepay
another $2.4 billion of the country’s debt by tapping government
owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs).
Recent data from the Finance department showed
that the $2.4 billion represents 7 percent of the combined P1.382
trillion that GOCCs owed creditors as of March last year. GOCCs
recorded a combined surplus of P39.86 billion in the first nine
months last year.
BSP Deputy Gov. Diwa C. Guinigundo, however, had
said the Finance department’s plan would hardly make a dent on the
local currency’s record rise, as that amount is only good for two
days’ worth of trade.
“Let’s say we’ll divide it by $200 million
everyday, it will hardly make a change. But it will still help
because that’s $2.4 billion [that] will not have to be sold in the
domestic markets, or $2.4 billion that would have been sourced from
outside then brought in,” he said.
The BSP official said the Finance department,
however, has yet to inform the central bank about any plan to buy
dollars for the prepayments.
Assuming the Finance department decides to
source the $2.4 billion from the central bank, Guinigundo said it
would not be made in one transaction.
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