PHL debt declines to P12.50 trillion as of end-May 2022

The National Government’s (NG) total outstanding debt was registered at P12.50 trillion as of end-May 2022.

For the month, NG’s total debt decreased by P267.41 billion, or 2.1%, primarily due to the repayment of provisional advances from the BSP. Of the total debt stock, 30.7% was sourced externally while 69.3% were domestic borrowings.

Domestic debt amounted to P8.67 trillion as of May, which is P270.40 billion or 3.0% lower compared to the end-April 2022 level. This resulted from the P300.00 billion repayment to the BSP which was partially tempered by the net issuance of government securities.

From the end-December 2021 level, outstanding domestic debt has increased by P495.04 billion or 6.1%.

External debt was P2.99 billion or 0.1% higher from the previous month at P3.83 trillion. For May, the increment in external debt was attributed to the impact of local¹ and foreign currency fluctuations against the US dollar amounting to an additional P5.63 billion and P9.41 billion, respectively.

These more than offset the effects of net repayment of external obligations amounting to P12.05 billion. NG external debt has increased by P272.19 billion or 7.6% from the end-December 2021 level.

Total NG guaranteed obligations decreased by P13.71 billion or 3.3% month-over-month to P399.71 billion.

The reduction in guaranteed debt was due to the net repayment of both domestic and external guarantees amounting to P8.41 billion and P6.48 billion, respectively.

These more than offset the effect of peso depreciation against the US dollar amounting to P0.32 billion and the net appreciation of third-currency denominated guarantees against the USD amounting to P0.85 billion.