The Philippine government is on track to surpass the P17 trillion debt threshold by the end of next year, data from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) showed.
Based on the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing submitted to Congress, the Marcos administration expects to conclude 2024 with a total debt of P16.05 trillion.
The DBM projects this figure to rise further to P17.353 trillion by the end of 2025.
Of the overall debt load, 69 percent is domestically sourced, while 31 percent is obtained from foreign sources.
Domestic debt is expected to reach P11.976 trillion by the end of 2025, a 9.6 percent increase compared to P10.923 trillion this year.
Foreign obligations, on the other hand, are forecasted to reach P5.377 trillion, a 4.7 percent rise from this year’s P5.133 trillion level.
In May, the national government’s debt soared to P15.35 trillion from P15.017 trillion at the close of April due to the depreciation of the peso and the government's net financing during the period.
The end-May figure was P1.193 trillion or 8.4 percent higher than the P14.154 trillion in the same period last year.
During the month, the domestic debt level reached P10.44 trillion, up P134.34 billion or 1.3 percent compared to the previous month.
This resulted from the P131.66 billion net issuance of government securities and the P2.68 billion effect of peso depreciation on foreign-currency-denominated domestic debt.
Year-to-date, domestic debt has increased by P731.33 billion or 5 percent.
In terms of external debt, the treasury reported an increase of P196.4 billion, or 4.2 percent, to P4.90 trillion, as the net foreign loan availment reached P122.4 billion and P76.94 billion in an upward revaluation of US dollar-denominated debt.
Meanwhile, the favorable third-currency movement provided a P2.94 billion downward revaluation effect.
Government-guaranteed obligations stood at P350.20 billion as of end-May, marking a P5.85 billion or 1.6 percent decrease from the previous month.
Net repayment of domestic guarantees amounted to P4.36 billion, and external guarantees to P3.55 billion.