Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno said over the weekend the country’s foreign debt remained at a prudent level, with its ratio to the gross domestic product settling at 27.3 percent as of end-September 2021.
Diokno said in a statement the country’s total outstanding external debt to GDP ratio “remained one of the lowest as compared to other ASEAN member countries.”
He said EDT, expressed as a percentage of GDP, is a solvency indicator. The low EDT to GDP ratio indicates the country’s sustained strong position to service foreign borrowings in the medium to long-term, he said.
External debt reached $105.9 billion as of the third quarter, a $4.7 billion (or 4.7 percent) rise from the $101.2 billion recorded in the second quarter.