Umabot na sa P13.75 trillion ang outstanding debt ng gobyerno ng Pilipinas, hanggang noong Pebrero 2023, mas mataas ng 0.4%  mula P13.7 trillion noong Enero.

“The Philippine government’s running debt balance swelled to a new record high as of the end of February 2023 on the back of increased fundraising efforts through the domestic debt market,” ayon sa Bureau of the Treasury (BTr).

Sinabi ng  BTr  na ang  higher debt stock noong  nasabing panahon ay  “primarily due to the net issuance of domestic securities.”

Ayon naman kay Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort, ang mas malawak na debt balance ay resulta ng pagpapalabas ng P288.711-billion 5.5-year Retail Treasury Bond noong nakaraang buwan.

“The latest net borrowings of the national government may reflect the need to finance the budget deficits in recent months, also partly due to higher prices/inflation that also fundamentally increased/bloated government expenditures, higher interest rates/financing costs that added to the government’s debt servicing costs, still relatively weaker peso exchange rate vs. the US dollar compared to a year ago that increased the peso equivalent of the national government’s outstanding debts,” ayon kay Ricafort.

“The lion’s share of the total debt pile or 68.7% was sourced from domestic borrowings while 31.3% was sourced externally,” ayon sa ulat.

Sa kabilang dako, ang domestic debt  ay umabot na sa P9.44 trillion, tumaas ng  0.6% mula  P9.38 trillion hanggang nitong Enero bunsod ng net availment ng  domestic financing na nagkakahalaga ng  P55.88 billion at ang  P1.34 billion na epekto naman ng local currency depreciation laban sa dolyar “on onshore foreign denominated securities.”

Ang Foreign debt, naman ay pumalo na sa  P4.31 trillion, bumaba ng 0.1% mula  P4.313 trillion month-on-month.

Ipinahayag ng BThe Treasury said the lower foreign borrowings during the period was due to the P21.15 billion net repayment of foreign loans and P32.32 billion impact of third-currency adjustments against the US dollar.

“These outweighed the effect of local currency depreciation against the US dollar, which amounted to P50.51 billion. Compared to the end of December 2022, the country’s external debt has increased by P100.12 billion or 2.4%,” sinabi nito.

Sinabi pa ni Ricafort na ang mabilis na paglago sa  economy, kasama ang  tax at iba pang fiscal reform measures ay naglalayong tulungan na mas maitaas pa ang structural tax revenue at iba pang revenue collections ng pamahalaan at sinamahan ng mas maraming government spending, “would help further reduce or improve the debt-to-GDP ratio to below the 60% international threshold to help sustain the country’s favorable credit ratings at 1-3 notches above the minimum investment grade.”

“As of end-2022, the debt-to-GDP ratio, or the government’s debt stock relative to the size of the economy, eased to 60.9% from 63.7% as of the third quarter of 2022, which was the highest since 2005,” ayon sa ulat.

Layunin naman ng pamahalaan na ibaba ang debt-to-GDP ratio ng mas mababa sa  60% sa 2025 at  tuluyan itong ibaba sa 51.1% sa  2028, at bawasan ang deficit-to-GDP ratio ng 3% sa  2028 at panatilihin ang  infrastructure spending sa  5% hanggang  6% ng  GDP kada taon.

Bago pumutok ang COVID-19 pandemic,  ang debt-to-GDP ratio ng bansa ay umabot lamang sa 39.6%  noong 2019.