The Philippines ended the year 2023 with a new record-high outstanding debt amounting to PHP 14.62 trillion, according to the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) on Wednesday.
In a data released, the national government's outstanding debt is now at PHP 14.616 trillion as of end-December 2023, an 8.92% or PHP 1.20 trillion increase from the end-December 2022 level of PHP 13.18 trillion.
Of the total debt stock as of December 2023, 31.5 percent or PHP 4.60 trillion are foreign borrowings, 2.54 percent or PHP 114.02 billion higher as compared to the month prior, and 9.21 percent or PHP 387.86 billion more than the end-December 2022.
"However, month on month, this reflects a decrease of PHP6.48 billion or 0.06 percent compared to the end-November 2023 level, primarily attributed to the net redemption of government securities," the agency said.
According to the BTr, the increase in the external debt from the end of 2022 to the end of 2023 was due to the net availment of foreign debt valued at PHP 88.24 billion, which includes $1 billion maiden issuance of Islamic bonds and disbursement of program loans from Asian Development Bank (ADB) amounting to $300 million.
With this, the latest outstanding government debt of the Marcos administration since he assumed office in June 2022 is PHP 1.825 trillion.
On Wednesday, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the country's economy grew slower in the last quarter of 2023 at 5.6%, falling short of the ambitious target of the national government of 6% to 7%.
The figures are weaker than the 7.1% recorded in the same period in 2022. It is also a deceleration from the 5.9% GDP growth posted in the third quarter of 2023.
