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Friday, October 22, 2004
Country's external debt manageable: Central bank exec
DESPITE the fact that the Philippine government has a huge amount of external debt that has to be settled the soonest possible time, an official of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) head office expressed optimism that such situation is still manageable.
This was bared by Bank Officer VI Olivia Vital during BSP's Public Information Campaign held at BSP Regional Office in Davao City Thursday.
Vital said that as of June this year, the country's foreign debt already reached US$56.3 billion.
Of the said amount, only 11.8 percent is accounted as short-term debt, while the remaining 88.2 percent is regarded as long-term debt.
"Sa nakikita ninyo, mas malaki ang long-term debt ng Pilipinas, so, mas manageable ang mga utang kasi may malaking panahon ang bansa para makahanap ng paraan upang mabayaran ang external debt," she said.
Vital said since short-term debt comprised only a very small percentage of the entire debt, the country has to focus initially on this first before getting on the long-term debt.
"I'm not saying that they should neglect the long-term debt. What I mean is, at least maliit na portion lang ang kailangang pagtuunan muna ng pansin ng goyerno," she said.
Vital laso said that low tax collections is the greatest problem that the government should take into consideration first.
"If hindi nakakakuha sa taxes (tax collections), uutang na naman sa labas ang ating gobyerno para matugunan ang lahat ng projects that they want to implement," she said. (JMM)
(October 22, 2004 issue)
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