From Inquirer Business

By Noriko Yamamoto

On Tuesday, February 3, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) announced that the national government’s debt had reached P17.71 trillion by the end of 2025.

By year-end, the debt reached its highest level, pushed up by new borrowings and the continued depreciation of the Philippine peso (PHP) against the United States Dollar (USD) and other currencies.

BTr data showed the debt stock rose P59.8 billion, or 0.34%, from November’s P17.65 trillion.

This breached the end-2025 target of P17.36 trillion by more than P350 billion and was P1.66 trillion, or 10.3%, higher than the P16.05 trillion recorded at the end of 2024.

According to the bureau, the increase came from the issuance of debt instruments to fund projects and the peso’s weaker value against foreign currencies.

Domestic debt reached P12.12 trillion, up by P1.19 trillion or 10.9%, from the P10.93 trillion posted in 2024, mainly due to treasury bills and treasury bonds.

Furthermore, almost all of the local debt was reported to come from government securities, with only P160 million from loans.

However, domestic borrowings made up 68.4% of the total, in line with the bureau’s plan to rely more on peso financing to limit foreign exchange risks and keep interest payments within the country.

External debt also rose by P60.6 billion, or 1.1%, to P5.59 trillion in December from P5.53 trillion in November.

The increase was caused by new global bonds, higher use of official development assistance, and the revaluation of foreign debt due to unfavorable exchange rates.

With this, the peso-dollar rate used in debt valuation was P58.79:$1, higher than November’s P58.729:$1.

The peso also weakened against other currencies, sliding from P59.918 to P69.055 against the euro and from P0.369 to P0.375 against the Japanese yen (JPY), which added to the rise in foreign debt.

Additionally, gross borrowings as of November 2025 reached P2.59 trillion, already above the P2.56 trillion recorded for the whole of 2024 and close to breaching the P2.6-trillion target.

By the end of the year, the government expects total debt to go beyond P19 trillion, about 7.3 percent higher than the end-2025 level.