MANILA, May 5 (Xinhua) — The Philippines saw its debt increase by 4.8 percent at the end of March, primarily “due to the next issuance of government securities to local and external lenders,” the Philippine Bureau of Treasury said on Thursday.
The bureau said the country’s total debt ballooned to 12.68 trillion pesos (roughly 242 billion U.S. dollars), of which 30.1 percent was sourced externally, while 69.9 pe