The Philippines’ sovereign debt is expected to swell further, breaching ₱19 trillion by the end of 2026, based on budget documents.
The Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing for fiscal year 2026 indicates that the government projects total outstanding debt to hit ₱19.057 trillion next year, up from the projected ₱17.359 trillion in 2025.
As of end-June 2025, the national government’s outstanding debt already crossed the ₱17-trillion mark, reaching ₱17.267 trillion, 2.1% higher than the ₱16.918 trillion recorded in May and 11% higher than the ₱15.483 trillion posted in June 2024.
The country ended 2024 with ₱16.051 trillion in sovereign debt, a 9.8% increase from the ₱14.616 trillion at end-December 2023.
For 2026, the bulk of the projected ₱19.057-trillion debt will be sourced domestically at ₱13.28 trillion, while ₱5.78 trillion will come from foreign sources.
The government also expects gross borrowings in 2026 to reach ₱2.682 trillion, with ₱2.055 trillion from domestic sources and ₱627.104 billion from external sources.
Breaking it down, the state plans to issue ₱1.995 trillion in fixed-rate treasury bonds and ₱60 billion in treasury bills.
For foreign borrowings, program loans are projected at ₱263.292 billion and project loans at ₱61.712 billion, while foreign bonds and other inflows will amount to ₱302.100 billion.
Finance Secretary Ralph Recto earlier said the country’s debt could climb to as much as ₱20 trillion by the end of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s term in 2028.
Recto added that the expected ₱20-trillion debt stock is still “consistent with the administration’s aim to bring down the debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio to less than 60% by 2028.”