MANILA - The country's external debt fell by $700 million to $51.8 billion at end-June from $52.5 billion at end-March due mainly to some repayments, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The latest figure was also lower than the $54.8 billion recorded as of the second quarter of last year.

The government accounted for $39.3 billion of the total debt in foreign currencies, while the private sector had a $12.5-billion share.

BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said that the country's external debt fell because the amount of liabilities paid in the second quarter was more than the amount of fresh loans incurred.

The central bank chief added that the positive impact of the settlements outweighed the effects of the appreciation of third currencies (foreign currencies other than the US dollar) against the greenback.

Dollar-denominated debts accounted for more than half or 51% of the total external debt, while those in yen accounted for 25.8%. The rest were in various other currencies.

Since the Philippines' external debts are measured in terms of the US dollar, depreciation of the greenback against other foreign currencies increases the overall amount of foreign liabilities of the Philippines.

Nonetheless, Tetangco said "major external debt indicators remained at prudent levels during the second quarter."

He said the ratio of the country's $39.5-billion gross international reserves to short-term external debt improved to 6.9 at the close of June from 6.0 in March.

He also said that overall external debt fell to 32.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) as of mid-2009 from 33.9% of GDP in the same period last year. The external debt ratio has generally been on a downtrend since 2002.

According to him, 89% of the country's foreign debts will mature within the medium to long term.

He said the average maturity of medium- to long-term loans as of the second quarter was 20 years.