The national government’s total outstanding debt reached P12.68 trillion as of end-March, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) reported yesterday.
BTr data showed the government’s debt rose 17.7 percent from the year ago level of P10.77 trillion, and 4.8 percent from the previous month’s level of P12.09 trillion.
The BTr said in a statement the month-on-month increase was primarily due to the net issuance of government securities to both local and external lenders.
Of the total debt stock, 30.1 percent was sourced externally while 69.9 percent were domestic borrowings.
Malacanang assured the public that while the country’s debt grew in March, it was “put into good use and utilized effectively and efficiently.”
Martin Andanar, communications secretary and acting presidential spokesman, said the borrowed funds were used by the government primarily for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response as well as for the country’s recovery and resiliency efforts.
“We assure our people that the country’s borrowings… shall be put into good use and utilized effectively and efficiently. Recent borrowings would be for our COVID-19 response and recovery and resiliency efforts. We need to sustain our country’s long-term socioeconomic growth and development,” Andanar said.
Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, the Duterte government announced that it would be resorting to foreign and domestic borrowing to fund, among others, the government’s COVID-19 response programs that included purchasing vaccines.
Broken down, the BTr reported that the national government’s domestic debt as of end-March amounted to P8.87 trillion, 14.5 percent higher than the year ago level of P7.74 trillion and up 5.4 percent compared to the end-February 2022 level of P8.41 trillion.
For March, the national government raised P457.8 billion through its domestic retail treasury bond issuance and debt exchange transaction.
Meanwhile, the national government’s external debt of P3.81 trillion jumped 25.8 percent from the March 2021 level of P3.03 trillion and was 3.6 percent higher from the previous month’s P3.68 trillion.
“The increment to external debt was due to the net availment of external financing amounting to P122.69 billion including the P117.33 billion ($2.25 billion) triple tranche 5-year, 10.5-year and 25-year global bonds,” the BTr said.
“Meanwhile, the effect of peso depreciation against the US dollar added P37.31 billion which was tempered by adjustments in third currencies which trimmed P29.17 billion,” it added. With Jocelyn Montemayor
