CONTINUED borrowings and a weaker peso drove the national government’s (NG) outstanding debt to a new record high of P19.39 trillion in July, Bureau of the Treasury data showed on Thursday.
The government’s debt stock rose 1.7 percent from June’s P19.07 trillion, increased by 10.39 percent year on year from P17.56 trillion, and was 9.5 percent higher compared to the P17.71 trillion posted at the end of 2025.
“The increase was primarily driven by the net availment of domestic and external debt, as well as the revaluation of foreign currency-denominated obligations following movements in the peso relative to the US dollar and other foreign currencies,” the Treasury said in a statement.
Domestic obligations comprised 67.61 percent of the total while external debt accounted for the remainder.
Domestic debt rose to P13.12 trillion, up 2.11 percent from the month-earlier P12.84 trillion. It was also higher than the P12.11 trillion seen a year ago.
“The increase was mainly attributable to the P271.22 billion net issuance of government securities, with the remaining movement due to the slight upward revaluation of onshore dollar bonds,” the Treasury said.
Relative to the end-December 2025 level of P12.17 trillion, domestic debt increased by P992.91 billion.
External debt, meanwhile, increased by 0.84 percent to P6.28 trillion from P6.23 trillion in June. It was up 15.12 percent from P5.46 trillion a year earlier.
“This was mainly due to P17.10 billion in net external loan availments, complemented by the higher peso value of foreign currency-denominated obligations following the depreciation of the peso against the US dollar and third currencies,” the Treasury said.
The government’s guaranteed obligations, meanwhile, dropped to P306.13 billion from the year-earlier P352.97 billion. It was, however, slightly higher than the P305.07 billion recorded in June.
“The month-on-month increase was primarily due to the P1.47 billion revaluation of external guarantees,” the Treasury said.
This was partly offset by net repayments of P260 million in external guarantees and P150 billion in domestic guarantees, it added.
