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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 20) – The country’s outstanding external debt soared to $ 98.5 billion in 2020 as authorities sought to boost the war chest against COVID-19, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said on Friday.
The central bank said external debt soared by $ 14.9 billion in late 2020 from $ 83.62 billion a year earlier, 7.1% or $ 6.5 billion of which was earned in the fourth quarter.
The BSP said that external debt refers to loans from residents to non-residents.
The data showed that public sector external debt jumped to $ 58.1 billion in the last quarter from $ 54.4 billion at the end of September.
Most or 89% of the figure were national government loans in the amount of $ 51.9 billion, while $ 6.3 billion were borrowed by government-owned and controlled corporations, government financial institutions, and the BSP.
BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said the national government raised $ 2.8 billion from global bond issuance and $ 733 million from net resources from official sources in the past three months in an attempt to increase its COVID-19 funding and finance infrastructure projects.
Private sector loans also rebounded to $ 40.4 billion at the end of December from $ 37.6 billion in the first nine months. The central bank said the increase was due to net cash reserves from private banks and private non-banks.
Despite this, the BSP chief said that key foreign debt indicators “remained at prudent levels” with gross international reserves set at $ 110.1 billion in 2020, which could cover short-term debt in 7.8 times.
The top creditor countries were Japan ($ 15 billion), the United States ($ 3.4 billion), the United Kingdom ($ 3.3 billion, and the Netherlands ($ 3 billion).
The country’s debt stock was largely denominated in US dollars at 56.7% and in Japanese yen at 11.8%.
The central bank also noted that loans in the form of bonds or promissory notes had the largest share with 35.6 percent of total outstanding debt.
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