THE public should not worry about the country’s ballooning debt since it remains manageable, according to Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno, who maintained that it is the debt’s proportion to the economy that should be monitored.
“And the best way to cut that ratio is to expand your denominator which is the nominal GDP,” he added. Diokno had earlier argued that the country’s debt-to-GDP is way better compared to other countries like the United States and Japan, which have a debt-to-GDP ratio in the vicinity of 100 percent and 300 percent, respectively.
“Even the maturity, the average maturity of our debt, is about 7.6 years which is every manageable in terms of our repayment capacity. Even in terms of interest rates, about 88 percent is fixed rates, meaning there’s no repricing even if interest rates rise,” she added.