Government’s debt jumped P219 billion, or 3.9 percent, to hit P5.954 trillion as of end-2015, as the weak peso pushed up the value of foreign obligations.
Data from the Treasury showed the national government’s debt increased from P5.735 trillion recorded as of end-2014.
It said that on a month-on-month basis, government debt also increased 0.03 percent, or P1.92 billion from November’s level.
The Treasury said despite the increase in the absolute value of government’s debt, the country’s capacity to settle the debt improved last year.
It said that as a percentage of the gross domestic product, government debt fell to 44.8 percent in 2015 from 45.4 percent of GDP in 2014. It also dropped 7.6 percentage points from 52.4 percent of GDP in 2010, which marked the start of the Aquino administration.
“The Philippines is fully committed to a proactive liability management strategy to keep our debt structure resilient. I am optimistic we can further trim down our debt-to-GDP ratio, which from 52.4 percent in 2010 has narrowed to 44.8 percent in 2015, a 7.6-percentage-point difference,” Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said.
“The improvement in the debt-to-GDP ratio, a usual measure of sustainability, can be attributed to the sustained accelerated pace of economic growth in tandem with disciplined fiscal spending that moderated borrowing requirements for the year,” Purisima said.
Domestic debt increased P63.78 billion, or 1.7 percent to P3.884 trillion as of end-2015 from P3.82 trillion in the same period in 2014. Relative to November 2015 figure, domestic debt decreased 0.3 percent, or P11.33 billion due to the net redemption of government securities amounting to P11.35 billion.
Foreign debt climbed 8.1 percent to P2.07 trillion as of end-2015 from P1.914 trillion a year earlier. Month-on-month, external obligations grew 0.6 percent, or P13.25 billion from November.
The Treasury said this was due to the combined effect of net availments worth P3.81 billion and peso depreciation as the dollar- and third currency-denominated debt gained P2.18 billion and P7.26 billion in local currency valuation, respectively.
“A challenging external environment calls for consistent discipline in making sure productive debt works in our favor. We will continue to stretch average maturities reasonably [now at 10 years] and keep a healthy preference for domestic financing [now at 67 percent],” Purisima said.
Meanwhile, the national government’s guaranteed obligations grew 2.7 percent in 2015 to P438 billion from P426 billion in the previous year.
This was pushed by the 17.2-percent jump in domestic guaranteed debt to P148.36 billion from P118.07 billion in 2014.
External guaranteed obligations declined 2.8 percent to P299.52 billion from P308.135 billion in 2014, data showed.