The Philippine government's total debt portfolio goes up by P217.49 billion or 2% in April from end-March as it secures both local and external financing.
The Philippine government’s outstanding debt reached a new high of P10.99 trillion as of end-April, as the country borrowed more to finance ballooning COVID-19 expenses.
Latest figures from the Bureau of the Treasury showed that the country’s total debt portfolio went up by P217.49 billion or 2% in April from end-March as it secured both local and external financing.
Domestic debt amounted to P7.8 trillion, 0.9% higher due to the issuance of government securities.
From the end-December 2020 level, outstanding domestic debt has gone up by P1.117 trillion or 16.7%.
Meanwhile, external debt in April stood at P3.178 trillion, which was P149.7 billion or 4.9% higher than in the previous month due to foreign loans and issuance of global bonds.
From the end-December 2020 level, external debt has increased by 2.5% or P78.6 billion.
The government is looking at a higher budget deficit of 8.9% in 2021, as government revenues fall amid the pandemic and corporate income taxes are reduced through the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises or CREATE law.
/STC
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