THE national government’s (NG) outstanding debt climbed to a new record high of P18.55 trillion in May, driven mainly by increased local borrowing in support of financing requirements.
Data released by the Bureau of the Treasury on Thursday showed that the government’s debt stock had risen by P76.11 billion, or 0.41 percent, from P18.47 trillion at the end of April.
Compared with the end of last year, meanwhile, outstanding debt expanded by 4.74 percent from P17.71 trillion while year-on-year it rose 9.62 percent from P16.92 trillion.
“The increase was primarily driven by the net incurrence of domestic securities as the government continued to raise funds to support financing needs, despite the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict,” the Treasury said in a statement.
“Meanwhile, the appreciation of the peso against the US dollar and other foreign currencies helped temper the increase.”
Domestic obligations comprised 67.37 percent of the total with external debt accounting for the remaining 32.63 percent.
Domestic debt rose to P12.50 trillion, up 0.65 percent from the month-earlier P12.41 trillion. It was also higher than last year’s P11.78 trillion.
“This is mainly due to P80.23 billion net issuance of government securities, while the peso appreciation trimmed P0.11 billion from onshore dollar bonds valuation,” the Treasury said.
External debt edged down to P6.05 trillion, slipping by 0.07 percent from April’s P6.055 trillion.
“This is due to the significant peso appreciation against the US dollar and other foreign currencies,” the Treasury said.
“The favorable downward valuation effect of P18.91 billion outweighed the P14.90 billion in net external debt availment.”
The government’s guaranteed obligations rose sharply to P443.50 billion as of end-May, increasing by 15.73 percent from April’s P383.23 billion.
The Treasury attributed this mainly to the issuance of P61.62 billion in new domestic guarantees.
“This was partially offset by favorable revaluation effects on external guarantees, amounting to P0.06 billion for local currency-denominated guarantees and P0.75 billion for third currency-denominated guarantees, as well as by repayments of external guarantees totaling P0.53 billion,” it added.
