At the end of 2024 P16.05 trillion in the middle of 2024, the outstanding debt of the National Government (NG) in the midst of higher debt issues and a stronger dollar, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTR) reported Tuesday.
Data from the treasury showed outstanding debts with 9.8% or P1.44 trillion of P14.62 trillion at the end of 2023.
Month to month, the debt fell by 0.2% compared to the record -high P16.09 trillion from the end of November.
“The end of the end of the year that kept closely related to the 2025 Budget of expenditure and sources of financing projections from P16.06 trillion, which reflects a minimum variance of only 0.03%, “said the BTR.
Excellent debt as a share of the gross domestic product (GDP) fell to 60.7% from the end-2024 of 60.1% a year earlier, the treasury said.
This was still slightly over 60% threshold that was considered by multilateral lenders to be manageable for developing countries.
It was also a bit higher than the target of 60.6% debt-to-BP of the government before 2024, mainly as a result of the “lower than expected real GDP growth outcome of 5.6%,” the BTR said .
“Nevertheless, the minimum deviation from the programmed debts underlines the effective strategies for effective cash and debt management, including the proactive management of the level and the timing of his external debt issue in the midst of the volatile exchange rate,” it added.
The Treasury attributed the increase in the year on an annual basis to the “P1.31 trillion Net issue of debt instruments in accordance with the government’s shortage program, as well as the P208.73 billion valuation effect of the US dollar reinforcement of the US dollar reinforcement.”
The Filipino Peso in 2024 closed on P57.845 versus the Dollar, weakened with P2.475 or 4.28% from the end-2023 finish of P55.37.
Data from the BTR showed that the bulk of 68.1% of the total debt shares came from the domestic debt, while 31.9% came from external sources.
The domestic debt rose by 9.1% to P10.93 trillion from the end of December from P10.02 trillion at the end of 2023. This mainly consisted of government effects.
“The net release of domestic effects has contributed to P905.31 billion to the annual increase, while the depreciation of the local currency reassured the peso valuation of outstanding by renowned in-fore in-foreign currencies with P7.18 billion,” the Treasury said .
Month after month, domestic loans fell by 0.1% of P10.92 trillion in November.
In the meantime, foreign loans jumped by 11.4% to P5.12 trillion from the end-2024 of P4.6 trillion at the end of 2023.
“The increase of the year after year was mainly due to P401.74 billion in net external debt protections, while the Peso debit against the US dollar increased external debt rating with P201.55 billion,” said the BTR.
“Adjustments to the third currency provided a P80.74 billion downward rating offset.”
External debt consisted of P2.68 trillion in global bonds and P2.44 trillion of loans.
Last year the government collected $ 4.5 billion from the international market. It gave the US dollar-mixed global bonds, and raised $ 2 billion in May and $ 2.5 billion in August.
Month after month, the external debt fell by 0.9% of P5.17 trillion in November “because the local and third-exceeding fluctuations reduced the Peso valuation of a P66.6 billion and P30.68 billion by foreign currency , while she respectively P66.6 billion and P30.68 billion, while net stabbers added P48.87 billion. “
From the end of the December, the total guaranteed obligations of the NG fell by 0.8% to P346.66 billion of P349.44 billion in the previous year.
Month to month, the guaranteed debt drops with 17.9% of P422.04 billion at the end of November.
“The decrease/improvement of the month on the month in the outstanding debts of NG is consistent with the stronger peso exchange rate versus the US dollar in December 2024 with 0.775 or 1.3% month to month to close to P57.485 ( versus P58.62 in November 2024), “said Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief economist Michael L. Ricafort.
“The stronger peso effectively reduced the peso equivalent of the outstanding NG -Boutherland debts when he was converted to Pesos,” he added.
Mr. Ricafort said that outstanding debts “could go to new record highs” after last month of the NG of $ 3.3 billion bonds of $ 3.3 billion.
The Philippines raised $ 3.3 billion in January of the issue of dollars and euro-connected sustainability bonds.
The debt shares of the NG are expected to hit P17.35 trillion at the end of 2025.
This year, the national government plans to borrow P2.55 trillion – P2.04 trillion of the domestic market and P507.41 billion from external sources.
This year the government wants to reduce the debt / GDP ratio to 60.4%, 60.2% in 2026 and 56.3% in 2028.- Ara inosante