The country's outstanding debt has now exceeded the P13 trillion mark as of August, one percent higher compared to last month, according to the Bureau of Treasury, Friday.

The BTr said in a statement that the national government's total outstanding debt reached P13.02 trillion as of the end of August, adding P133.64 billion from the end-July 2022 level.

The incremental debt was due to the net issuances of domestic securities as well as currency adjustments.

At the current level, the country's liability has increased by P1.29 trillion or 11 percent since end-December 2021, of which 68.7 percent were domestic borrowings while 31.3 percent were sourced externally.

Further, the BTr revealed that the domestic debt amounted to P8.94 trillion, which is P111.21 billion or 1.3 percent higher compared to the end-July 2022 level.

The increase in domestic debt in August resulted from the net issuance of government securities amounting to P109.43 billion and the P1.78 billion impact of local currency depreciation against the United States dollar.

"Since the beginning of the year, the domestic debt portfolio has increased by P772.98 billion or 9.5 percent due to continued reliance on domestic borrowing to lessen the impact of currency fluctuations," it said.

On the other hand, the country's external debt amounted to P4.08 trillion, which is P22.43 billion or 0.6 percent higher than the end-July 2022 level.

For August, the increment in the level of external debt was due to the impact of local currency depreciation against the US dollar amounting to P62.24 billion.

This offsets the P26.59 billion effect of third-currency depreciation against the US dollar and net repayment amounting to P13.22 billion.

Year-to-date, the NG external debt increased by P520.03 billion or 14.6 percent from the end-December 2021 primarily due to local-and third-currency fluctuations that increase the peso value of foreign-denominated obligations.