By Chino S. Leyco The national government’s outstanding debt increased in January this year owing to the Duterte administration’s renewed focus on domestic borrowings, the Bureau of the Treasury said yesterday. As of January, the total debt of the national government stood at P6.726 trillion, up by 10 percent compared with P6.115 trillion in the same period last year. National Treasurer Rosalia B. de Deon explained that the double-digit increase in debt was attributable to the government’s twin sale of retail bonds last year, which were targeted at small investors. “Last year, we had two retail treasury bond sales, and we only borrowed $500 million from the overseas debt markets,” De Leon said in a telephone interview. “Weaker peso did not affect us that much during the one-year period.” Based on the Treasury data, the peso weakened in January from P49.757 against the greenback last year to P51.341. But despite the weaker peso, the increase in foreign debt moved at a much slower pace compared with the domestic obligations. Treasury data showed, local debt jumped 12.1 percent year-on-year to P4.431 trillion from P3.951 trillion, while its foreign component increased by 6.2 percent from P2.162 trillion to P2.295 trillion in January. Of the total debt stock, 34.1 percent were sourced from external markets while 65.9 percent is owed to domestic creditors. Month-on-month, the debt portfolio grew 1.1 percent in January from the end-December level of P6.652 trillion mainly due to the impact of foreign currency fluctuations. Treasury said external debt increased by 3.8 percent in the January from the previous month. “External debt escalation was principally due to peso depreciation and the impact of third currency appreciation that raised the value of the US dollar and third-currency denominated indebtedness amounting to P61.21 billion and P6.78 billion, respectively,” the Treasury said. “These added to the net availments on foreign loans for the month amounting to P16.15 billion,” the bureau added. Total national government guaranteed obligations, meanwhile, amounted to P489.45 billion, or 2.4 percent higher relative to the end-2017 level. “The increment is mainly the effect of US dollar and third currency fluctuations against the peso on external guarantees amounting to P7.77 billion and P4.00 billion, respectively,” the Treasury said. “These outpaced repayments on both domestic and foreign guarantees amounting to P0.34 billion and P0.09 billion, respectively,” it added. For 2018, the Treasury bureau expects the national government’s outstanding debt to reach P6.994 trillion.