MANILA – Government debt stock ballooned to P13.752 trillion in February owing to higher borrowings and weaker peso against the US dollar, data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed Thursday, March 30.
As of February 2023, the national government’s outstanding debt has risen by 13.7 percent, or P1.659 trillion, from only P12.093 trillion in the same month last year, the Treasury data revealed.
The end-February level also inched up by 0.4 percent from P13.698 trillion in January.
Of the total debt stock, 68.7 percent were domestic borrowings, while 31.3 percent was sourced externally.
Domestic debt amounted to P9.44 trillion, 0.6 percent higher compared with the end-January 2023 level of P9.384 trillion. Year-on-year, it rose from P8.314 trillion.
According to the Treasury, the slight increase was due to the net availment of domestic financing amounting to P55.88 billion and the P1.34 billion effect of local currency depreciation against the US dollar on onshore foreign denominated securities.
From the end- December 2022 level, local debt has increased by 2.5 percent.
Meanwhile, the government’s external debt decreased marginally by 0.1 percent to P4.31 trillion from P4.313 the previous month due to the P21.15 billion net repayment of foreign loans and P32.32 billion impact of third-currency adjustments against the US dollar.
These outweighed the effect of local currency depreciation against the US dollar, which amounted to P50.51 billion.
Compared to the end of December 2022, the country’s external debt has increased by P100.12 billion or 2.4 percent.
Year-on-year, foreign obligations at end-February 2023 jumped from P3.68 trillion.
On the other hand, Total national government guaranteed obligations decreased by 1.7 percent month-on-month to P387.19 billion as of the end of February 2023.
The Treasury said the reduction was due to the net repayment of both domestic and external guarantees amounting to P2.56 billion and P3.21 billion, respectively.
The effect of net depreciation against the US dollar on third-currency denominated guarantees further trimmed P3.09 billion, more than offsetting the net depreciation effect of the local currency amounting to P2.22 billion.
Since the end of December 2022, government’s guaranteed debt has decreased by 3.0 percent or P11.86 billion.
