THE national government's gross borrowings rose to P188.65 billion in July as domestic debt surged, latest Bureau of the Treasury data showed.

Based on the bureau's latest cash operations report, overall borrowings totaled P188.65 billion for the month, up 42.9 percent from P131.94 billion a year earlier. It is also higher than the P148.18 billion recorded in June of this year.

Year-to-date, gross borrowings came in at P1.76 trillion, 15.5-percent higher than the P1.52 trillion recorded in the same period last year.

Domestic debt accounted for the bulk of July's gross borrowings at P180.59 billion, 63.4-percent higher than the year-earlier P110.49 billion and P132.48 billion in April.

For the first seven months of the year, domestic debt was recorded at P1.48 trillion.

Foreign borrowings, on the other hand, were markedly lower at P8.06 billion from P21.44 billion a year earlier. It is also lower than the P15.7 billion recorded in the previous month.

As of end-July, foreign debt totaled at P275.48 billion.

The bulk of domestic borrowings, or P155 billion, came from fixed rate Treasury bonds, with another P25.59 billion raised from Treasury bills.

Project loans, meanwhile, accounted for most of the foreign borrowings for the month at P8.06 billion.

Government financing surged to P186.91 billion for the month, up 42.5 percent from the year-earlier P131.13 billion. It was also up from June's P140.23 billion.

Financing for the first five months of 2024 totaled P1.37 trillion, 6.3-percent lower than the P1.46 trillion recorded in the same period last year.

As of end-June, the national government's outstanding debt ballooned to a new record high of P15.48 trillion.

Of the total debt stock, 31.71 percent was borrowed abroad while 68.29 percent was sourced domestically.

As of end-June, domestic debt was at P10.57 trillion, 1.2- percent higher than a month earlier at P10.44 trillion.

External debt, meanwhile, totaled P4.91 trillion, only 0.1 percent or P5.62 billion higher month-on-month.