The country’s consolidated General Government (GG) debt stood at P6.7 trillion in the first quarter of 2019, an increase of 7.1 percent from the P6.3 trillion level at the end of 2018.

Of the total, 62.2 percent or P4.2 trillion are domestic borrowings and 37.8 percent or P2.5 trillion are external.

National Government (NG) debt net of the Bond Sinking Fund grew to P7.3 trillion, an increase of 14.2 percent from last year’s level of P6.4 trillion. This was mainly driven by domestic debt, which grew by 16.4 percent while external debt increased by 8.0 percent over the same period.

Local government debt increased by 5.4 percent or P5.0 billion compared to the end of 2018.

Meanwhile, Social Security Institutions (SSIs) such as the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Social Security System (SSS) did not contribute to the debt stock while simultaneously increasing their intra-sector holdings of Government Securities by 63.4 percent.

As a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), GG debt registered at 38.0 percent, up by 2.0 percentage points from the 36.0 percent recorded as of the end of 2018.

GG debt includes the outstanding debt of the NG, SSIs, the Central Bank Board of Liquidators (CB-BOL), and Local Government Units (LGUs), minus intra-sector debt holdings of government securities, including those held by the Bond Sinking Fund (BSF).

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