Government debt widens by P931B to P14.35T at end-Aug

The government on Tuesday reported total outstanding debt rising P930.72 billion in August to P14.35 trillion from its level at the end of 2022 on account of additional borrowings to support the budget and the weakness of the peso.

Nearly 32 percent of the debt stock were denominated in foreign currency with the balance borrowed from domestic creditors.

Domestic debt as of end-August 2023 settled at P9.79 trillion, up P582.74 billion from the end-December level as the government sold Treasury bills and bonds to help fund the national budget.

Total issued and outstanding government securities reached P9.79 trillion in August after settling at only P9.21 trillion in December.

External debt, meantime, rose by P347.98 billion from the end of 2022 to P4.56 trillion in August. Revaluation of foreign currency-denominated debt due to the peso’s depreciation against the U.S. dollar. The exchange rate stood at P56.651 to a US dollar at the end of August compared with P55.815 at the end of 2022.

Outstanding foreign-currency denominated government securities, most of them bonds, rose to P2.48 trillion in August from P2.33 trillion in December. Foreign loans over the same period rose to P2.07 trillion from P1.88 trillion.