THE BUREAU of treasury said that the Philippines closed the year 2023 with another record-high sovereign debt balance of P14.62 trillion.

In a statement, the BTr said that the national government’s outstanding debt amounted to P14.616 trillion as of end-December 2023.

This is up 8.92% or P1.20 trillion from the end-December 2022 level of P13.18 trillion.

Meanwhile, on a month-on-month basis, the government’s running debt stock grew by 0.74% from P14.508 trillion as of end-November 2023.

The situation had put the Marcos administration’s gross borrowings since it assumed office in June 2022 to P1.825 trillion.

But Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said this is not a concern, since the debt value relative to the size of the economy is within comfortable levels.

He said that the country’s debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio stood at 60.2% in 2023, an improvement from the 60.9% level as of the end of 2022.

This meant that the full-year 2023 debt-to-GDP ratio is significantly below the government’s target of 61.2% for the year under its Medium-Term Fiscal Framework.