The Philippines borrows less than Malaysia — and still spends a larger share of revenue on interest.

The Philippine debt ratio is lower than Malaysia’s, but interest absorbs a larger share of Philippine government revenue. These are two distinct measures, with different observation years.

The supplied IMF WEO fiscal scoreboard projects gross debt at 60.2% of GDP for the Philippines and 69.5% for Malaysia in 2026. In this headline, “borrows less” refers specifically to that gross debt ratio, not the flow of new borrowing.

World Bank WDI observations for 2024 put interest payments at 17.29% of revenue in the Philippines and 15.55% in Malaysia. Both observations use the same year and indicator, GC.XPN.INTP.RV.ZS.

The denominator matters

The interest comparison describes the share of government revenue devoted to servicing interest. It does not establish a difference in bond yields, effective interest rates or the absolute size of interest payments. Revenue shares can differ because of both interest payments and the size of the revenue base.

We pair the two charts to show different aspects of the fiscal picture. The debt chart is a 2026 projection, while the interest chart is a 2024 observation. They are not a same-year balance sheet, and dividing one by the other would not produce a valid headline borrowing-rate measure.

What the wider region can tell us

The debt chart includes the full SEA-11. The headline interest panel limits itself to the same-year Philippines–Malaysia pair. The wider interest pack has mixed vintages, and Brunei, Indonesia and Vietnam lack usable current observations in that revenue series.

Older observations remain visible in the full interest chart, with their years attached. Singapore is a special structural case, and Timor-Leste’s Petroleum Fund also limits direct comparison. Read the coverage notes before making a regional ranking.