Government debt exceeds P15-trillion level in February
The national government's debt surpassed the P15-trillion mark in February.
According to the Bureau of the Treasury's report on Wednesday, April 3, government debt load soared by P388 billion in February alone on the back of borrowing spree from domestic lenders.
The borrowing during the month brought the national government debt stock to P15.18 trillion as of February, an increase of 2.6 percent from P14.79 trillion in the previous month.
Of the total debt stock, 69.7 percent were domestically borrowed, while 30.3 percent was sourced overseas, the treasury data showed.
The government heavily borrowed in the domestic market, incurring P414.5 billion in new debt during the month.
For context, the Marcos administration borrowed P585 billion from small Filipino savers in February, through its retail treasury bond sale and debt exchange transaction.
Domestic debt amounted to P10.6 trillion, up 4 percent in February.
“For the month, domestic debt gross issuance totaled P708.74 billion including the P584.86 billion 5-yr Retail Treasury Bonds issuance,” the Treasury noted.
“Meanwhile, principal payments amounted to P293.57 billion, resulting in a net issuance of P415.17 billion,” it added.
The peso, on the other hand, averaged P56.174 against the US dollar in the first month of 2024, weaker compared to 55.210 in the same month last year.
Meanwhile, the foreign debt of P4.6 trillion was P26 billion lower than the previous month.
The lower figure for external debt was attributed to the impact of local and foreign currency exchange rate adjustments amounting to P18.79 billion and P9.96 billion respectively.
Year-on-year, government debt accelerated by nearly P1.4 trillion, or 10.4 percent, from P13.752 trillion.
In January this year, Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto said that the country’s ballooning debt stock should not be “a cause for concern, as it represents only 60 percent of the country's economy, or gross domestic product.”
“Today, at 60 percent, I'm not that much concerned about the national debt. It's your ability to pay that is important. It's not the size of the debt, but your ability to pay,” Recto told reporters.
Under the administration’s Medium Term Fiscal Framework, the government eyes to shrink the debt-to-GDP ratio to less than 60 percent by 2025 and further reduce it to 51.1 percent by 2028.
As of end-2023, the country’s debt-to-gross domestic product ratio was 60.2 percent, up from the 60.9 percent in end-2022, government data showed.