The government has the capacity to settle its financial obligations after the country's debt reached more than P11 trillion amid efforts to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, Malacañang said Tuesday.

According to Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, the country's debt seemed huge but the figure actually remained in the middle range especially since the government economic team stayed conservative when it comes to borrowings.

The Bureau of the Treasury earlier reported the national debt jumped to P11.071 trillion in May, or 24 percent from P8.89 billion trillion in the same month last year.

The debt burden consisted of domestic debt amounting to P7.915 trillion as well as foreign obligations that reached P3.115 trillion. Both local and foreign obligations have increased from P6.034 trillion and P2.856 trillion from a year before.

"Yung ating naiulat pong external debt ngayon, iyan po ay nasa mid-range kung ikukumpara natin sa mga ekonomiya na kasinlakas natin, kagaya ng iba’t ibang ekonomiya po ng Latin America – lower middle-income countries (The external debt reported is in the mid-range compared to other economies as strong as ours, like countries in Latin America, the lower middle income countries)," he said during a televised press briefing Tuesday, July 6.

"So malaki pong tingnan iyan, but we are in the mid-range at wala naman pong problema iyan pagdating doon sa ating kakayahan na magbayad as they fall due (So it looks huge but we are in the mid-range and there is no problem when it comes to our capacity to pay as they fall due)," he added.

The government has allocated billions of pesos in its response and recovery efforts following the debilitating impact of the pandemic. The programs included cash subsidies to poor households and displaced workers affected by the coronavirus outbreak.