Government debt rises by 6.9% to P5.45 trillion

MANILA, Philippines - The national government's total debt grew by 6.9 percent to P5.45 trillion in June this year, the Bureau of Treasury announced on Friday.

The total amount translates to an estimated P54,500 worth of debt for every Filipino.

Month-on-month, government debt rose by 1.6 percent from May's P5.36 trillion.

The bureau said local sources accounted for P3.5 trillion of the debt while foreign sources accounted for P1.95 trillion.

Domestic debt rose by 14.8 percent from P3.05 trillion last year and 1.2 percent from the previous month's P3.46 trillion.

The Treasury said the month-on-month jump came from the “combined effect of the P42 billion net issuance of government securities, the P1 billion impact on multicurrency RTBs (retail treasury bond) of the peso depreciation against the US dollar and the euro, and a P2 billion reversion of national government-assumed domestic liabilities, which have been inactive for 25 years.”