Philippines debt hits record P15.69 trillion in July

MANILA, Philippines — The issuance of domestic securities and other foreign borrowings pushed the country’s debt to P15.69 trillion in July, in yet another fresh high in outstanding obligations, according to the Bureau of the Treasury.

Latest data from the Treasury showed that the national debt stood at P15.69 trillion as of end-July, the highest level to date.

This is also 10 percent higher than the P14.24-trillion debt in the same month last year.

For July alone, the government added some P206.5 billion to the debt pile, primarily driven by the net issuance of both domestic and external debt.

As of July, the outstanding debt is already 97.7 percent of the total expected debt for 2024 of a record P16.06 trillion.

The Treasury said domestic borrowings accounted for the majority or 68.54 percent of the debt pile while the rest or 31.46 percent came from external sources.

Total domestic debt at P10.75 trillion rose by 1.7 percent on a monthly basis due to the net issuance of government securities worth P180.52 billion.

This was partially tempered by the P490 million downward revaluation effect of peso appreciation on dollar-denominated domestic securities.

The peso strengthened in July at 58.488 compared to 58.658 to $1 a month ago.

Domestic debt also jumped by 9.6 percent from P9.81 trillion in July 2023.

External obligations, on the other hand, were almost flat at P4.94 trillion month-on-month, but grew by 11.4 percent from P4.43 trillion on a yearly basis.

The Treasury said the increase was attributed to the P5.25 billion in net foreign loan availment and P35.44 billion in upward revaluation of dollar-denominated debt.

This was partially offset by the P14.23 billion effect of peso appreciation against the greenback.

Further, the government’s guaranteed obligations slightly increased by 0.3 percent to P344.79 billion due to the P3.57 billion effect of third-currency adjustments against the dollar.

This outweighed the P1.96 billion reduction from domestic and external net repayments as well as the P470 million downward revaluation brought about by the improvement of the peso against the dollar.