Debt payments down 34%

THE AMOUNT of debt paid by the national government in January dropped by over a third to P78.2 billion as both amortization and interest payments declined year-on-year.

The latest Treasury data showed that total debt payments—interest and amortization combined—at the start of the year went down 34.1 percent from P118.6 billion a year ago.

Interest payments slid to P45.6 billion from P51.4 billion in the same month last year, as obligations for both domestic and foreign debt also declined.

Payments for interest slapped on domestic debt declined to P23.3 billion from P26.3 billion a year ago, while the P22.3 billion paid for interest on external obligations was likewise lower than a year ago’s P25.1 billion.

Interest on fixed rate treasury bonds accounted for the bulk of payments last January, amounting to nearly P19 million, while the rest were for retail treasury bonds.

The national government’s amortization payments, meanwhile, were more than halved to P32.6 billion from January last year’s P67.2 billion.

The amount of amortization paid for domestic liabilities fell to P9.6 billion from P65.9 billion a year ago, even as those for foreign debt jumped to P22.9 billion from P1.3 billion in the same month last year.

Last year, the government’s debt payments rose 3.7 percent year-on-year to P534.1 billion as the increase in amortization outpaced the decline in interest paid.

For this year, the government had allocated P419.3 billion or 14 percent of the P3.002-trillion national budget for debt servicing.