The Philippine debt rose to almost P4.9 trillion during the first half of this year, 4.3 percent higher than a year ago level, the Department of Finance said Sunday.

Of the P4.889 trillion general government (GG) debt as of June, domestic borrowings made up nearly two-thirds or about P2.836 trillion, while funds sources from overseas lenders reached P2.052 trillion.

The debt consists of the outstanding obligation of the national government, the Central Bank Board of Liquidators, social security institutions and the local government units minus that held by the Bond Sinking Fund, the DOF said.

"The same DOF data traced the increase in nominal GG debt at end-June to the 2.3 percent rise in outstanding debt held by the national government from the year-ago’s P5.816 trillion to P5.948 trillion at present," it said.

Meanwhile, the government's debt relative to the country's whole economy fell to 35.4 percent by June, a slight improvement compared to 36.1 percent in the same period last year and 35.8 percent in the first quarter, the DOF said.

The government debt-to-GDP ratio is an indicator used by debt watchers, such as Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings, to assess the creditworthiness of sovereigns.

The Philippine government has already secured investment grade sovereign credit ratings from all three major international credit rating agencies Fitch, Moody’s, and S&P.

All three credit watchdogs gave the Philippines the minimum investment grade in 2013, while S&P followed the move with another notch of upgrade in 2014. Celerina D. Monte/DMS