The government’s total outstanding debt as of end-October 2020 rose by P658.81 billion, or 7 percent, to P10.027 trillion from the end-September level, driven mainly by the availment of external and domestic loans used to fund the budget deficit amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bureau of the Treasury said Friday.
The Treasury said in a statement 28.4 percent of the total outstanding debt stock were secured from foreign sources while 71.6 percent were obtained from the domestic market.
Domestic debt amounted to P7.077 trillion, P638.99 billion or 9.9 percent higher than the end-September level due to additional short-term borrowing availed from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas alongside the net issuance of domestic government securities.
To date, domestic debt has increased P1.949 trillion, or 38 percent, since the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, the external debt of P2.950 trillion was P19.83 billion, or 0.7 percent higher from the previous month.
“For October, the increment in external debt was attributed to the P18.98 billion net availment of external loans and P2.42 billion net appreciation of third-currency against the US dollar, offsetting the effect of local-currency appreciation amounting to P1.57 billion,” Treasury said.