The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on Saturday reported that the country's total external debt has decreased to $117.9 billion in the second quarter from $118.8 billion in the previous quarter due to the United States dollar appreciation against the Philippine peso.

In terms of its share in the gross domestic product, the smaller external debt translated to 28.5 percent external debt ratio from 29 percent.

Dollar appreciation

"This dollar appreciation reduced the US Dollar equivalent of borrowings denominated in other currencies by $963 million," a statement from the BSP explained.

BSP said the decline in external debt partly reflected the $305-million deduction from issuances of Philippine debt papers to non-residents during the second quarter.

In this period, external debt by the public sector declined to $74.5 billion, lower by $686 million.

National government largest borrower

The national government remains the largest borrower in this sector with a $67.7 billion loan, followed by government-owned and controlled corporations, government financial institutions and the BSP with total loans coming to $6.8 billion.

Private sector borrowings also decreased by $208 million to $43.4 billion.

"Its share of the total external debt slightly increased from 36.7 percent to 36.8 percent. This was driven mainly by net repayments of $630 million and negative foreign exchange revaluation of $67 million," BSP added.

Major creditor countries in the second quarter included Japan with $13.3 billion, the US with $4.1 billion, and the United Kingdom with $3.7 billion.

Year-on-year, the debt stock grew by $10.2 billion mostly from borrowings by the national government amounting to $7.9 billion. This was followed by non-residents' holdings of Peso-denominated debt securities issued onshore worth $3.7 billion.