The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said over the weekend the country’s outstanding external debt remained at “prudent” levels, despite a 0.8-percent increase to $118.8 billion as of end-September 2023 from $117.9 billion level as of end-June 2023.
“The rise in the debt level was due to prior periods’ adjustments [borrowings made in previous quarters] amounting to $2 billion, of which $1.9 billion were borrowings by private sector non-bank firms,” the BSP said.
The debt stock rose by $10.9 billion or 10.1 percent year-on-year, according to BSP data.
The maturity profile of the country’s external debt remained predominantly medium- and long-term (MLT) in nature, with share to total at 85.6 percent ($101.7 billion).
Relative to previous quarter, the weighted average maturity for all MLT accounts slightly declined to 17.2 years from 17.3 years, with public sector borrowings having longer average tenor of 20.3 years versus 7.2 years for the private sector.
ST liabilities, or those with original maturities of up to one year, accounted for 14.4 percent of the outstanding debt stock and comprised mainly of bank liabilities, trade credits, and other liabilities.
The BSP said the public sector external debt decreased by 1 percent to $73.7 billion in the third quarter of 2023 from $74.5 billion level in the second quarter, while private sector debt rose 3.9 percent to $45.1 billion from $43.4 billion.
Major creditor countries were Japan ($14.8 billion), the United Kingdom ($4.1 billion) and Singapore ($3.3 billion).
The country’s debt stock remained largely denominated in US dollar ($91.5 billion or 77. percent of total) and Japanese yen ($9.5 billion or 8.0 percent of total).
The rest ($17.7 billion or 14.9 percent) pertained to 14 other currencies, including the Philippine peso (6.4 percent), the Euro (4.8 percent) and Special Drawing Rights (3.2 percent).