MANILA, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' outstanding debt hit 7.494 trillion pesos (roughly 144.74 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of January 2019 as the government borrowed more both locally and abroad, the Philippine Bureau of Treasury (BTr) said on Monday.
In a statement, the BTr said the 2.8-percent month-on-month rise in outstanding obligations from end-2018's 7.293 trillion pesos (roughly 140.86 billion U.S. dollars) was "mainly due to net availments of both foreign and domestic loans amid efforts to take advantage of generally favorable market conditions to raise foreign and local funding."
Of the total stock, BTr said 34.5 percent were sourced externally while 65.5 percent were borrowed onshore.
Year-on-year, the debt stock as of January jumped 11.4 percent from 6.726 trillion pesos (roughly 129.91 billion U.S. dollars) during the same month last year.
Domestic debt, which accounted for 65.5 percent or nearly two-thirds of the total outstanding amount, increased 2.8 percent month-on-month and 10.8 percent year-on-year to 4.91 trillion pesos (roughly 94.76 billion U.S. dollars).
Meanwhile, the BTr said external debt grew 2.7 percent month-on-month and 12.6 percent year-on-year to 2.584 trillion pesos (roughly 49.91 million U.S. dollars) last January.
The BTr said "the weakening of the U.S. dollar, on one hand, decreased the peso value of dollar-denominated debt by 19.24 billion pesos (roughly 371.60 million U.S. dollars); but on the other hand, increased the peso equivalent of third currency-denominated debt by 4.63 billion pesos (roughly 89.42 million U.S. dollars), thereby resulting in a net downward revaluation effect of 14.61 billion pesos (roughly 282.17 million U.S. dollars)."
