Gov’t debt payment down 2.1% in Nov.

THE AMOUNT of debt paid by the government last November slid by 2.1 percent year-on-year to P26.5 billion mainly due to lower interest payments, the latest Bureau of the Treasury data showed.

In 2014, the government settled P27.1 billion in combined amortization of principal and interest.

In November last year, the government paid almost P16 billion in interest, down from P18.1 billion a year ago.

Interest payments for domestic debt amounted to P14.1 billion and for foreign liabilities, P1.9 billion.

Payments for amortization, meanwhile, went up to P10.5 billion from almost P9 billion a year ago.

The amortization paid for domestic liabilities reached P4.1 billion and for foreign debt, P6.4 billion.

During the first 11 months, debt payments totaled P505.8 billion, up 5.4 percent from P479.8 billion a year ago.

End-November payments for interest hit P287.9 billion, while amortization payments reached almost P218 billion.

For 2016, the government is allocating P419.3 billion or 14 percent of the P3.002-trillion national budget for debt servicing. The outstanding government debt as a percentage of the gross domestic product is seen declining to 41.8 percent this year.

In 2014, the government serviced debt worth P515 billion—the smallest in over a decade, on the back of a record-low amount paid for amortization. Ben O. de Vera