Debt-to-GDP ratio creeps up to 60.9% in Q2 from Q1’s 60.1%
THE National Government’s (NG) debt as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) was 60.9% in the second quarter, down from 61% a year earlier but rebounding from the 60.1% posted a quarter earlier, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said on Thursday.
The government set a debt-to-GDP ratio target this year of 60.6%. It aims to bring this down to 56% by 2028.
The threshold considered by multilateral lenders to be manageable for developing economies is 60%.
At the end of June, the NG’s outstanding debt rose 0.9% from a month earlier to a record P15.48 trillion due to the impact of a weaker peso.
The deficit as a share of GDP was 5.3% in the three months to June, picking up from 4.46% a quarter earlier and 4.8% a year earlier. The reading remained below the government’s 5.6% deficit ceiling set for this year.
In the first half, the deficit-to-GDP ratio averaged 4.9%, the BTr said.
The NG’s budget deficit narrowed 7.24% year on year to P209.1 billion in June.
In the first six months, the budget gap widened 11.2% to P613.9 billion. In the first quarter, the deficit widened 0.65% to P272.6 billion. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz