Philippines’ debt rose to $252 bn in Feb

Manila, March 30  The Philippines’ debt rose to 13.75 trillion pesos ($252 billion) as of the end of February, a 0.4 per cent increase from total outstanding debt recorded at the end of January, due to the net issuance of domestic securities, the Bureau of Treasury said on Thursday.

Of the total debt stock, the Bureau said 31.3 per cent was sourced externally, while 68.7 per cent were domestic borrowings, reports Xinhua news agency.

It said the country’s external debt amounted to 4.31 trillion pesos, or 0.1 per cent lower than in January due to the 21.15 billion pesos in net repayment of foreign loans and 32.32 billion pesos on the impact of third-currency adjustments against the US dollar.

“These outweighed the effect of local currency depreciation against the US dollar, which amounted to 50.51 billion pesos,” the Bureau added.

According to the Bureau, the Southeast Asian country’s external debt has increased by 2.4 per cent compared to the end of December 2022.