By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Senior Reporter
THE National Government’s (NG) outstanding debt hit a fresh high of P18.16 trillion as of end-February, reflecting a stable and well-managed debt position, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said on Wednesday.
Latest data from the Treasury showed that the debt inched up by 0.14% from P18.13 trillion at the tip of January.
Yr on 12 months, outstanding debt went up by 9.19% from P16.63 trillion at end-February 2025.
“The modest uptick underscores the federal government’s stable and well-managed debt position amid evolving global financial conditions,” the BTr said in an announcement.
“This was largely driven by the continued prioritization of domestic financing to guard the federal government’s debt position from unfavorable external developments,” it added.
NG debt is the full amount owed by the Philippine government to creditors resembling international financial institutions, development partner-countries, banks, global bondholders and other investors.
The majority or 68.7% of the full debt stock got here from domestic sources, while the remaining were external borrowings.
“With domestic debt accounting for 68.7% of the full, the NG maintains a prudent debt profile that minimizes vulnerability to foreign exchange (forex) fluctuations,” BTr said.
Domestic debt, which was composed of presidency securities, rose by 1.25% to P12.48 trillion at end-February from P12.32 trillion at end-January, “as the federal government issued more securities amounting to P158.14 billion to lift funds for national development.”
Yr on 12 months, it jumped by 11.19% from P11.22 trillion in the identical period.
“The impact of currency movements on foreign currency-denominated domestic securities remained minimal, reducing valuations by P3.75 billion,” it added.
Meanwhile, external debt dropped by 2.21% to P5.68 trillion as of end-February from P5.81 trillion at end-January.
Nonetheless, external debt jumped by 5.03% from P5.41 trillion in February 2025.
BTr said that the drop is “primarily driven by favorable forex rate movements, which decreased the peso value of US dollar- and third currency-denominated obligations by a combined P136.43 billion.”
“These valuation gains greater than offset net external loan availment amounting to P7.78 billion,” it added.
The peso closed at P57.665 against the dollar at end-February, appreciating by P1.195 from its P58.860-per-dollar finish at end-January.
External debt was composed of P2.93 trillion in global bonds and P2.75 trillion in loans.
“Despite the decline in external debt stock, the NG continued to access external financing strategically. As of end-February 2026, total external financing reached P203.10 billion, including the successful issuance of $2.75 billion in triple-tranche global bonds with tenors of 5.5, 10, and 25 years,” it said.
“This reflects sustained investor confidence within the country’s credit profile and the NG’s ability to tap international markets on reasonable terms.
Yr-to-date, NG external debt rose by P88.98 billion, or 1.59%, from P5.59 trillion as of end December.
Meanwhile, NG’s guaranteed obligations increased by 10.11% to P379.98 billion as of end-February from P345.08 billion within the previous month.
“The rise was primarily driven by recent guarantees prolonged to the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) Corp., which is partially offset by net repayments and favorable currency movements,” it said.
Michael L. Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Industrial Banking Corp., said that the rise in outstanding debt doesn’t reflect yet the impact of the war within the Middle East, which began in March.
“But it surely could still partly reflect some government underspending for the reason that latter a part of 2025 attributable to the anomalous flood-control projects,” he said in a Viber message.
The minimal increase, he said, reflects the stronger peso exchange rate at P57 levels in February “which somewhat tempered the peso equivalent of external debts.”
For the approaching months, Mr. Ricafort said the budget deficit is anticipated to widen amid a rise in government spending which might require more NG borrowings.
“Further, the record high US dollar-peso exchange rate above P60 recently could lead on to a better peso equivalent of foreign debt,” he said.
The Marcos administration projected the outstanding debt level to succeed in P19.06 trillion in 2026. Of this, around 70% or P13.28 trillion are domestic debt, while P5.78 trillion are external debt.