PH March debt payments eased 8%
MANILA, Philippines – The Marcos administration’s debt service bill fell in March from a year earlier as principal repayments declined, though interest costs to domestic lenders continued to rise.
According to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), the government paid a total of P169.092 billion to creditors at home and abroad in March, nearly 8-percent lower compared to the amount it settled a year ago.
READ: Weaker peso bloats government debt
However, the debt service had already reached P737.5 billion in the first quarter, surging 115.6 percent from the same period last year.
This heavier obligation was mainly driven by the February figure, which rose sevenfold after a large volume of domestic securities matured during the month.
The first-quarter total now accounts for about 37 percent of the P2.005-trillion earmarked for debt service expenditures in 2026.
Domestic interest
Breaking down the March figure, amortization dipped 23.65 percent to P72.7 billion.
Both principal repayments to external and domestic sources declined, with external amortization falling 23.67 percent to P72.6 billion and domestic amortization easing 7.24 percent to P128 million.
In total for the first quarter, amortization reached P464.3 billion, ballooning 360 percent from P101.022 billion a year ago. This is already nearly half of the P1.055-trillion repayment program for the year.
Interest payments, meanwhile, jumped 9.37 percent to P96.4 billion. Domestic interest costs, in particular, climbed 24.13 percent to P79.7 billion.
But this was partly offset by a 30-percent decline in interest paid to external creditors, which fell to P16.676 billion.
Interest expenses totaled P273.1 billion in the first three months of the year, indicating rising financing costs as it increased 13 percent from the same period in 2025.
Despite the government paying more in the first quarter of 2026 from a year ago, outstanding debt as of end-March still swelled to a fresh record high of P18.49 trillion due to the continued weakness of the peso and rising domestic borrowings.
The outstanding debt is now nearing the government’s P19.01-trillion ceiling for the year. INQ
