The National Government added in the first three months of this year a total P309.45 billion to its outstanding debt, pushing the total to P14.93 billion, up 2.1 percent from December and 7.2 percent from the end of March 2023.
New issuances of treasury bills and bonds in the domestic debt market and foreign borrowings by government agencies to fund projects lifted total outstanding debt at the end of March.
Compared to the end-February level, the latest debt figures were lower by 1.7 percent due to the net redemption of P299.45 billion government securities offsetting the P0.24 billion effect of peso depreciation on foreign currency domestic debt.
Almost 70 percent of outstanding government debt was borrowed domestically.
The end-March domestic debt level of P10.28 trillion was an increase of P259.56 billion from December and P764.33 billion from the year-ago period.
External debt of P4.65 trillion at the end of March was P49.89 billion higher than the end-December level and P304.5 billion from the year-earlier period.
Government-guaranteed obligations increased to P346.04 billion as of end-March due to the net availment of domestic guarantees and local currency depreciation.
