Public sector debt climbs by 2 pct

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - The Philippines' consolidated public sector debt rose by 2 percent to P7.7 trillion ($178 billion) as of March this year from end-2012 debt, the Department of Finance (DOF) said today.

The department attributed the increase on the domestic debt, which climbed by 5.3 percent to P5.5 trillion. Foreign debt, on the other hand, declined by 5.4 percent to P2.1 trillion.

While the public sector debt jumped by P154.2 billion to March from P7.5 trillion 2012, the latest debt was equivalent to 71.3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), lower than the 74.3 percent of GDP as of March 2012.

Consolidated public sector debt represents the total debt of the National Government (NG), Local Government Units (LGUs), the 14 Monitored Government Corporations (MNFGCs), the country's Social Security Institutions, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) , and the three Government Financial Institutions (GFIs), net of the government's holdings of its own debt through the above- mentioned institutions and the Bond Sinking Fund (BSF).