Gov’t sees lower debt, GDP ratio

The national government’s outstanding debt as of end-2023 rose by 8.92 percent to P14.62 trillion compared to the year-ago level, the Bureau of the Treasury reported Wednesday.

Debt from domestic sources grew by 8.79 percent to P10.2 trillion. Similarly, external debt rose by 9.21 percent to P4.6 trillion.

The total loan was mostly sourced from domestic sources which comprised 68.5 percent while the rest was foreign sources.

In December, the total debt slightly grew by 0.74 percent or P107.54 billion, partly due to foreign exchange adjustments.

Debt-to-GDP, or gross domestic product, ratio for 2023 improved to 60.2 percent from 60.9 percent as of end-2022, as the economy remained robust due to higher spending on consumer goods and fixed, capital assets such as machinery.

Breaking it down, the P10.02 trillion domestic debt reflected a gross issuance of P29.69 billion loans for the month of December with principal payments worth P36.08 billion. This resulted in a net repayment of 6.39 billion.

Due to local currency appreciation against the US dollar, the debt for that period declined by P0.09 billion.

Compared to November, the December level also declined by 0.06 percent, mostly due to net redemption of government securities.

Meanwhile, the P4.6 trillion external debt reflected the government issuance of the country’s first Islamic bonds and loans from Asian Development Bank.These, together with other foreign sources, amounted to P88.24 billion.