Gov’t debt inches up to P15.35T in May

Bureau of the Treasury

Government debt rose to P15.35 trillion as of end-May mainly due to the weakening of the local currency against the greenback, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said on Thursday.

The BTr showed that total state obligations increased by P330.39 billion in May, up by 2.2 percent from the previous month.

Compared with a year ago, the debt load went up by 8.4 percent, or an additional P1.193 trillion-debt in May.

READ: Weaker peso increases gov’t debt burden

The BTr attributed the higher debt due to “the impact of local currency depreciation on the valuation of foreign-currency denominated debt” of which the peso weakened by 94 centavos to P58.52 as of end-May from P57.58 seen in end-April.

Since the beginning of the year, total liabilities have accumulated by P731.33 billion or 5 percent.