Economic managers recently sought to lower the debt and address inflation through responses in the proposed 2024 National Budget, lawmakers recently said.

The House of Representatives opened the plenary debates on House Bill 8980 or the FY 2024 General Appropriations Bill earlier this week, beginning with deliberations on the general provisions of the proposed budget led by House Committee on Appropriations Chair Elizaldy Co and Senior Vice Chair Stella Luz Quimbo.

During their sponsorship speeches, both representatives emphasized the significance of the budget bill, urging other lawmakers to take proactive steps and join the Committee on Appropriations in crafting the best version of the P5.768 trillion budget for next year.

The Development Budget Coordination Committee or DBCC, emphasized that the proposed FY 2024 national budget was crafted to achieve the Medium-Term Fiscal Framework targets, including bringing down the debt-to-GDP ratio to less than 60.0 percent by 2025.

As of the end of June, the 61.0 percent ratio remains in the median of comparable countries in the ASEAN and East Asia, among other emerging market economies.

"The international standard as of the moment is 70 percent, and our debt to-GDP ratio is also lower compared to other countries such as Malaysia which is at 61 percent, Japan at 261 percent, Singapore at 134 percent, and China at 77 percent," Quimbo said.