Finance chief assures PH can pay ₱52-B loan offered by South Korea

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Finance chief assures PH can pay ₱52-B loan offered by South Korea
By CNN Philippines Staff

Updated 15:56 PM PHT Tue, June 5, 2018

http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2018/06/05/South-Korea-Philippines-loan.html

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 5) — The Philippines can pay back the $1 billion (around ₱52.78 billion) loan offered by South Korea, Finance Secretary Sonny Dominguez said Tuesday in a bid to allay concerns of increasing national debt.

"It is very, very generous of the Korean government and certainly we can afford this," Dominguez said in a press briefing in South Korea for President Rodrigo Duterte's official visit there.

The amount will be given to the Philippines as an Official Development Assistance (ODA), which refers to a government aid, a loan or grant that aims to promote the economic development of developing countries.

South Korea's loan will add up to the Philippines' ongoing ODA loans amounting to $11.9 billion (around ₱626.38 billion) as of December 2017.

But Dominguez assured the public the Philippines can pay the multi-billion peso loan for 40 years at a "cheap" 0.15-percent interest rate set by South Korea.

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