The total outstanding debt of the government reached a new record high of ₱16.75 trillion in April, an increase of ₱68.7 billion, or 0.4 percent, from the previous month, driven by higher domestic borrowings amid strong demand for government securities.

Latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed the government’s total debt reached ₱16.75 trillion in April, up by ₱68.7 billion. This translates to a 0.4-percent increase month on month.

Further rise was “minimized by the significant appreciation of the peso, which reduced the effect of additional borrowings in line with the fiscal program,” the BTr said in a statement released on Tuesday, June 3.

In particular, the peso’s appreciation trimmed the value of dollar-denominated domestic securities by ₱3.85 billion.

The BTr said that the government continues to follow “a disciplined debt strategy, ensuring that borrowings support productive investments while keeping fiscal sustainability.”

“The fiscal deficit has also been steadily narrowing and is on track to drop to about 3.8 percent by 2028,” it added.

As of end-April 2025, domestic debt climbed 1.85 percent to ₱11.59 trillion from the previous month. This was due to the “strong demand for government securities, including ₱300 billion in benchmark bonds.”

Meanwhile, foreign debt dropped to ₱5.16 trillion for the first four months, marking a 2.7-percent decline from March. This drop was mainly due to the peso’s appreciation, which reduced the value of foreign debt by P124.7 billion, along with net repayments amounting to ₱58.3 billion.

In the first four months, domestic debt made up 69.2 percent of the total debt stock, while foreign debt accounted for 30.8 percent. While it slightly improved from the previous month’s ratio, this fell short of the 80:20 borrowing ratio—80 percent of total debt from local lenders and 20 percent from foreign creditors.

The government lowered its borrowings to ₱1.14 trillion from January to April 2025, down by ₱28 billion from last year’s ₱1.16 trillion, mainly due to the massive decline in borrowings from local lenders.

For this year, the Marcos administration plans to borrow a total of ₱2.55 trillion from both domestic and foreign lenders to plug a projected budget shortfall of ₱1.54 trillion, which would be equivalent to 5.3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Of this amount, ₱2.04 trillion will be borrowed from domestic creditors, while ₱510 billion is planned to be borrowed from foreign sources.