By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Senior Reporter
NATIONAL GOVERNMENT (NG) debt dipped month on month in April as domestic debt repayments outweighed the impact of a weaker peso on external obligations, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said.
Latest data from the Treasury showed that the debt slipped by 0.09% to P18.47 trillion from the P18.49 trillion end-March level.
“The decline in debt was primarily driven by the federal government’s repayment of domestic securities, which greater than offset the impact of peso depreciation against the US dollar on foreign currency-denominated obligations,” the BTr said on Tuesday.
Yr on yr, outstanding debt went up by 10.25% from P16.75 trillion at end-April 2025.
NG debt is the entire amount owed by the Philippine government to creditors comparable to international financial institutions, development partner-countries, banks, global bondholders and other investors.
The majority or 67.22% of the entire debt stock got here from domestic sources, while the remaining were from external sources.
Domestic debt, which was composed of presidency securities, slid by 0.95% to P12.42 trillion at end-April from P12.53 trillion at end-March.
In response to the BTr, the month-on-month decline in domestic debt was “mainly as a consequence of the P121.64-billion net redemption for the month, as P283.24 billion in debt issuance was offset by maturities of P404.88 billion.”
“A P2.46-billion valuation increase within the peso equivalent of foreign currency-denominated domestic securities from peso depreciation partially tempered the decline,” it added.
In response to the Treasury, the peso had weakened to P61.54 as of end-April versus the dollar from P60.678 as of end-March.
Yr on yr, domestic debt jumped by 7.12% from P11.59 trillion in the identical period.
Meanwhile, external debt rose by 1.71% to P6.06 trillion as of end-April from P5.95 trillion at end-March.
Yr on yr, it jumped by 17.3% from P5.16 trillion in the identical period.
The Treasury said the rise was mainly as a consequence of the depreciation of the peso as the worth of foreign currency-denominated obligations increased by P101.72 billion. Net redemptions amounted to P80 million.
External debt was composed of P3.06 trillion in global bonds and P3 trillion in loans.
The NG’s guaranteed obligations inched up by 0.48% to P383.23 billion as of end-April from P381.41 billion within the previous month.
“The rise was driven by the effect of peso depreciation and third-currency movements on the valuation of external guarantees amounting to P1.25 billion and P620 million, respectively,” the BTr said.
“Meanwhile, repayments made by National Home Mortgage Finance Corp. and National Power Corp. reduced domestic guaranteed operations by P0.05 billion.”
Yr on yr, guaranteed obligations jumped by 13.53% from P337.54 billion.
The NG’s outstanding debt is projected to achieve P19.06 trillion by end-2026 under the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing 2026.
Under the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 Midterm Update Results Matrices posted on May 20, the federal government expects the debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio at 60-63% in 2026.
In the primary quarter, the debt-to-GDP ratio climbed to 65.2%, the very best annual level since 65.7% in 2005.
OUTLOOK
Nonetheless, the month-on-month decline in outstanding debt may prove temporary as slower economic growth could make it harder for the federal government to enhance revenue collection, in response to a former central banker.
“It might be an enormous challenge for NG to sustain the decline because economic growth just isn’t exactly spectacular. With the slowdown, higher revenue generation could be a tall order,” GlobalSource Partners Principal Advisor Diwa C. Guinigundo told BusinessWorld.
He added that the federal government should proceed exercising fiscal discipline and improve budget utilization to stop leakages that would widen the fiscal deficit and add to debt.
Mr. Guinigundo also cautioned against reading an excessive amount of into the April decline, noting that monthly debt movements are sometimes driven by scheduled repayments and valuation effects.
“For April, it was reported that there was some net repayment on debt securities as scheduled. The dip, nonetheless, was undoubtedly small although higher than the impact of the peso depreciation on the external component of the NG debt,” he added.