Gov’t debt payments up 13% to P262B

HIGHER amortization payments pushed up by almost 13 percent year-on-year to P262.011 billion the total amount of debt paid by the government as of the end of April this year.

The latest Bureau of the Treasury data showed that payments for amortization increased to P145.720 billion between January and April from P115.42 billion in the first four months of 2014.

In April, alone, amortization reached P40.873 billion, up from P25.318 billion in the same month last year.

End-April interest payments, meanwhile, slightly went down to P116.291 billion from P116.527 billion a year ago.

Last April, interest payments amounted to P15.677 billion, higher than last year’s P13.398 billion.

The government paid debt amounting to P56.550 billion in April, bigger than the P38.716 billion settled in the same month last year.

In 2014, the government paid P515 billion in debt—the least in over a decade—mainly on the back of record-low amortization payments.

The total debt payments made last year were 7.9-percent lower than the P559 billion paid in 2013.

Not only was the debt servicing done in 2014 below that of the previous year, but it was also the lowest since 2003, when P470 billion in total debt was paid.

From 2004 to 2010, the annual debt paid all exceeded P600 billion, with payments peaking at P854 billion in 2006. The amounts of debt settled in 2011 and 2012 both hit the P700-billion level before falling in 2013.