The national government’s outstanding debt increased by P244 billion over the past 12 months to reach nearly P6 trillion as of end-October this year, data from the Treasury show.
The Treasury said in a statement government debt reached P5.958 trillion in October, up by 4.3 percent from P5.714 trillion a year ago.
Month-on-month, the national government debt increased by P22.02 billion or 0.4 percent from P5.936 trillion in September.
“Similarly, the amount is 3.9 percent or P222.47 billion higher relative to end-December 2014,” the Treasury said.
Domestic debt increased P142 billion or 3.8 percent to P3.9 trillion in October this year from P3.82 trillion in October 2014. This was also 0.4 percent or P14.96 billion higher than the previous month’s level.
“For the month of October, the majority of increase in domestic obligations was due to net issuance of government securities amounting to P14.98 billion,” the Treasury said.
“This was slightly trimmed by the appreciation of the local currency against the US dollar that reduced the peso value of debt by P0.02 billion,” the Treasury said.
Data showed that of the total local debt, P3.89 trillion were government securities while P598 million were loans.
Meanwhile, foreign government debt increased P102 billion or 5.2 percent over a 12-month period to reach P2.060 trillion in October from P1.96 trillion a year ago.
The October foreign debt also exceeded the previous month’s level by 0.3 percent or P7.06 billion.
“The increase in external obligations is attributed to net availments worth P13.80 billion,” the Treasury said.
This was tempered by the impact of the stronger peso against the dollar and third currencies.
Meanwhile, national guaranteed debt as of end-October slightly declined 1.2 percent year-on-year to P441 billion.
“The decline was due to the combined effect of peso appreciation against the US dollar, net depreciation of third currencies and net repayments,” the agency said.
The national government plans to borrow less next year and slash the debt stock to a record-low of 41.8 percent of the gross domestic product from the projected 44.7 percent this year.