MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ outstanding debt climbed to a record of P14.51 trillion as of the end of November 2023 due to the net issuance of domestic securities, the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) said on Wednesday.
In a statement, the national treasury said that the debt stock increased by P27.92 billion where 30.91% are from external debts while 69.09% are from domestic borrowings.
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The end-November debt level was 0.19% percent higher than the P14.48 trillion in October 2023.
The country’s domestic debt at the end of November posted a total of P10.02 trillion which is 1.23% higher than the previous month’s P9.9 trillion.
The BoT attributed the increase in domestic debt to the net issuance of government securities worth P171.091 billion while principal payments amounted to P45.14 billion, which resulted in net payments of P125.95 billion.
The treasury also said that the rise in debt was somewhat reduced by about P3.87 billion, as the Philippine peso strengthened and had an impact on domestically held foreign currency-denominated securities.
External debt, on the other hand, amounted to a total of P4.48 trillion is 2.06% lower than the end-October’s debt of P4.58 trillion.
The treasury said that the country’s external obligations were lessened due to the government’s net repayment of foreign loans amounting to P1.08 billion and “favorable foreign exchange movements.
On the other hand, total debt guaranteed obligations declined by P7.86 billion or 2.18% month-over-month to P353.14 billion as of end-November 2023.
The treasury attributed the drop in guaranteed debt to the government’s net repayment of both domestic guarantees amounting to P1.21 billion and external guarantees amounting to P3.50 billion.