End-January Philippine debt balloons to P14.79 trillion — Treasury

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ outstanding debt climbed to a record of P14.79 trillion as of the end of January 2024 due to the net issuance of domestic securities and the effect of peso depreciation, the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) said on Friday.

In the treasury’s latest report, it said that the debt stock increased by P173.91 billion where 31.29% are from external debts while 68.71% are from domestic borrowings.

The end-January debt level was 1.19% percent higher than the P14.61 trillion in December 2023.

“The increase was attributed to the P81.73 billion upward revaluation caused by local currency depreciation against the USD,” BTr said.

The country’s domestic debt at the end of January posted a total of P10.16 trillion which is 1.44% higher than the previous month’s P10.2 trillion, according to the Treasury.

The BTr attributed the increase in domestic debt to the net issuance of government securities. Issuance of domestic debt for end-January reached P211.11 billion while principal payments totaled P69.67 billion. This resulted in the net issuance of P141.44 billion, according to the Treasury.

External debt, on the other hand, amounted to a total of P4.63 trillion, a 0.65% increase from the end-December’s debt.

The Treasury attributed the increase in external obligations to P81.73 billion upward revaluation caused by local currency depreciation against the U.S. Dollar.

“Total repayment of external loans amounted to P85.41 billion (USD1.51 billion) resulting in a total net repayment of P23.55 billion for January 2024,” it said.