THE national government’s outstanding debt climbed to a new record high of P19.07 trillion in June, surpassing the P19.06-trillion projection for 2026, following fresh local and domestic borrowings that the Bureau of the Treasury said were used to fund the country’s development.
Treasury data released Thursday showed that the government’s debt stock rose by P518.98 billion, or 2.8 percent, from P18.55 trillion at the end of May. It was also 7.67 percent up from the P17.71 trillion seen in 2025 while year-on-year it increased by 10.41 percent from P17.27 trillion.
“The increase from the end-May 2026 level... was driven by the net availment of both domestic and external borrowings to fund national development,” the Treasury said in a statement. It added that “the favorable movement of the peso tempered the increase.”
Domestic obligations comprised 67.33 percent of the total while external debt accounted for the remainder.
Domestic debt rose to P12.84 trillion, up 2.74 percent from the month-earlier P12.5 trillion. It was 7.43 percent higher than the yearago P11.95 trillion.
“This is behind the P342.93 billion net issuance of government securities and a P0.60 billion downward adjustment of onshore dollar bonds valuation brought about by the stronger peso,” the Treasury said.
Compared to the end-2025 level of P12.17 trillion, domestic debt increased by P721.59 billion.
External debt, meanwhile, rose by 2.92 percent to P6.23 trillion from May’s P6.05 trillion and was 17.13 percent higher than June 2025’s P5.32 trillion.
“This is mainly due to the net availability of external loans amounting to P223.11 billion,” the Treasury said.
“Meanwhile, the appreciation of the peso against the US dollar and third currencies reduced the peso value of foreign currency-denominated obligations by P46.46 billion,” it added.
Government guaranteed obligations dropped sharply — by 31.21 percent — to P305.07 billion as of end-June from the month-earlier P443.50 billion. It was 11.6 percent lower than last year’s P345.11 billion.
The Treasury attributed the decline mainly to the “net repayment of external and domestic guarantees,” which totaled P470 million and P136.71 billion, respectively.
It added that “favorable foreign exchange movements further trimmed outstanding guarantees by P1.26 billion.”
