The outstanding debt of the national government (NG) has hit P7.167 trillion as of end-October this year, with domestic debt of P4.620 trillion outpacing foreign debt of P2.546 trillion, data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed.
Based on BTr data, the NG’s outstanding debt for the ten months ending October expanded by 10.24 percent compared to the P6.501 trillion reported for the same period last year. The figure shows a 0.10-percent month-on-month uptick compared to the September figure of P7.159 trillion.
Of the total NG debt, domestic debt posted a growth of 9.59 percent compared to last year’s P4.216 trillion, while debt owed to offshore financial institutions of P2.546 trillion increased by 11.45 percent, from the P2.285 trillion recorded in October last year.
The BTr said the increase in the government’s domestic debt was due to the net issuance of government securities amounting to P32.74 billion. This was slightly offset by the appreciation of the peso that decreased the value of onshore dollar bonds by P0.29 billion.
The government’s domestic debt is higher by 0.71 percent compared to the September figure of P4.587 trillion. NG’s external debt in October contracted by 0.98 percent, from the previous month’s P2.572 trillion.
“The decline in external debt level was principally due to the P27.34-billion impact of the stronger peso and net repayment on foreign obligations amounting to P0.33 billion,” the BTr added. “This was tempered by the net appreciation of third-currency denominated external debt amounting to P2.52 billion.”
Furthermore, the government’s guaranteed outstanding debt hit P484.711 billion as of end-October, which posted a decrease of 0.89 percent from last year’s P489.088 billion but showed an increase of 0.71 percent compared to the September record of P481.303 billion.
Broken down, external guaranteed debt outpaced that of the government’s domestic guaranteed debt for the month amounting to P292.495 billion and P192.216 billion, respectively.
In July this year, the Development Budget Coordination Committee said in order to ensure efficient borrowing, this year’s goal of sourcing 65 percent of loans from the domestic market and 35 percent from external sources will be modified so that the government will now be targeting the proportion of domestic borrowing to increase to 75 percent, which will reduce the percentage of external financing in the mix to 25 percent in 2019 to 2022.