Despite the government's announcement of a steady GDP, each Filipino, at the end of 2014, still incurred a debt of about PHP62,107 -- his share of the national debt.
The amount of PHP62,107 was based on the national government's outstanding debt versus the country's population of 92.34 million.
According to an Interaksyon news report, the Bureau of Treasury said the national debt settled at P5.735 trillion last year, slightly higher than the P5.681 trillion the previous year but below the P6.322 trillion programmed for 2014.
This means that the burden on every Filipino went higher at the end of 2014, higher than the per capita burden of P61,522 the year before.
The government incurs debt whenever tax revenue falls short of expenditures, creating what is called a budget deficit. At end-November 2014, the deficit stood at P26.8 billion or a little over a tenth of the government's full-year ceiling of P266 billion.
GDP or gross domestic product is the amount of final goods and services produced in the country, and is used to size up the government's debt since taxpayers' money, which is used to settle those liabilities, depend on how big is the economy.
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