MANILA, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' outstanding external debt stood at 87.5 billion U.S. dollars as of end-June, up by 6.0 billion U.S. dollars or 7.4 percent from the 81.4 billion U.S. dollars level as of end-March, the Philippine central bank said on Friday.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno said the rise in the debt stock during the second quarter was due to net availments of 2.9 billion U.S. dollars, largely because the government raised 2.4 billion U.S. dollars from the issuance of global bonds and 3.1 billion U.S. dollars from multilateral and bilateral creditors to fund its general financing requirements and COVID-19 pandemic response programs or projects.

Diokno said further increases to the debt level were due to prior periods' adjustments of 2.1 billion U.S. dollars; increase in non-residents' investment in Philippine debt papers issued offshore of 839 million U.S. dollars; and positive foreign exchange revaluation of 227 million U.S. dollars as the U.S. dollar weakened against other currencies, including the Philippine peso.

Year-on-year, Diokno said the country's debt stock rose by 6.2 billion U.S. dollars.

The Philippines continues to grapple with a surging number of COVID-19 cases despite the imposition of varying degrees of lockdown measures since mid-March that shut down 75 percent of the country's economy.

The pandemic and the quarantines have led to the contraction of the economy in the first semester by 9 percent.

The Philippines now has 279,526 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 4,830 deaths and 208,790 recoveries. Enditem

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