THE national government's outstanding debt fell to P14.93 trillion in March, the Bureau of the Treasury reported on Thursday, snapping a five-month run of record highs.

It fell from February's P15.18 trillion but was still higher than the year-earlier P13.9 trillion, Treasury data showed.

The drop was attributed to the net redemption of domestic government securities.

Of the total debt stock, domestic borrowings comprised the bulk, or 68.86 percent, at P10.28 trillion. It was 2.83 percent lower compared to February's P10.58 trillion.

"The decline resulted from the P299.45 billion net redemption of government securities offsetting the P0.24 billion effect of peso depreciation on foreign currency domestic debt," the Treasury said in a statement.

Domestic debt was said to have increased by P259.56 billion, or 2.59 percent, since the start of the year. Year on year, it was up 8.03 percent or P764.22 billion.

External debt — 31.14 percent of total outstanding debt as of end-March — totaled P4.65 trillion, 1.0 percent up from the prior month's P4.6 billion.

The uptick was attributed to "net availment of foreign loans amounting to P44.01 billion, as well as local currency depreciation, which added to the valuation of US dollar-denominated debt by P7.05 billion."

"This more than offset the P4.83 billion impact of the appreciation in third currencies against the USD," the Treasury added.

Compared to the end of December 2023, external debt was P49.89 billion, or 1.09 percent higher, while year on year it was P304.50 billion, or 7.01 percent higher.

Guaranteed obligations, meanwhile, increased by 0.3 percent, or P1.11 billion, to P346.04 billion as of end-March from a month earlier.

This was attributed to the net availment of domestic guarantees amounting to P2.48 billion and the P250 million effect of local currency depreciation against the dollar on external guarantees.

"The net repayment of external guarantees offset P1.15 billion, while the net appreciation on third-currency-denominated guarantees trimmed P0.47 billion," the Treasury said.

Guaranteed debt fell by 1.0 percent, or P3.40 billion, from the end of December and by 9.9 percent, or P38.08 billion year on year.

The Finance Department on Monday said that planned government borrowings would be raised to P2.57 trillion this year from P2.46 trillion given a higher deficit projection, which the Development Budget Coordination Committee raised last month to P1.48 trillion from P1.39 trillion.

The borrowing mix remains at 75:25 in favor of domestic sources, from which the government expects to get P1.93 trillion with the rest to come from abroad.