The national government paid off over P1 trillion in debts in October, the highest in 35 years, according to data from the Bureau of Treasury.
The government’s debt payments as of October stood at over P1 trillion - the highest since 1986, according to the Bureau of Treasury.
In the January-to-October period, debt service soared to P1.053 trillion, exceeding all debt service payments since 1986.
The figure was 18.48 percent higher than the P888.69 billion recorded a year ago, Business Mirror said.
Amortization payments reached P682.043 billion while interest payments amounted to P370.884 billion during the 10-month period.
Amortization grew 29.45 percent from P526.86 billion in 2020 while interest payments increased 10.69 percent from P335.044 billion last year.
For October alone, debt service payments more than tripled due to a surge in the country’s amortization payments, the treasury bureau said.
The country’s debt service swelled to P89.066 billion in October, representing a 227.59-percent increase from the P27.188 billion posted in October 2020.
In October, the country’s amortization payments skyrocketed to P57.53 billion in 2021, a 1,024 percent increase from the P5.118 billion posted a year ago.
Interest payments totaled P31.536 billion in October, or up by 42.89 percent than the P22.07 billion for the same period last year, the BTr said.
The bulk of both amortization and interest payments were made for domestic borrowings valued at P52.706 billion and P23.989 billion, respectively.
The national government’s debt payments as of end-September this year had exceeded the amount it paid for the entire 2020.
The government’s debt service bill from January to September has hit P963.86 billion, eclipsing the P962.47 billion for the full-year 2020, the paper noted.
Year-on-year, debt payments in the 9-month period rose by 15.47 percent from the P834.72 billion recorded in the comparable period in 2020.
In October, the bulk of the payments or P57.53 billion went to amortization, which ballooned from the P5.118 billion a year ago. Broken down, P52.706 billion or 91 percent were principal payments for local debt, while P4.824 billion went to foreign creditors, Business World said.
At the same time, P31.536 billion went to interest payments in October. This was 42 percent higher than the P22.07 billion a year earlier. Broken down, interest paid on local debt increased by 57.6 percent to P23.989 billion from P15.22 billion a year ago. This includes P1.18 billion in interest payments for Treasury bills, P18.402 billion for Treasury bonds, and P4.33 billion for retail Treasury bonds.
Interest payments on foreign debt increased by 10 percent to P7.547 billion from P6.85 billion.
For the first 10 months of 2021, the debt service bill jumped by 22percent to P1.052 trillion from P861.904 billion in the same period of 2020.
The national government paid P682.043 billion for amortization, up 30 percent from P526.86 billion in the same period last year. This consisted of P458.109 billion for local debt and P223.934 billion for foreign debt.
As of end-October, interest payments went up by 10.7 percent to P370.884 billion, which includes P281.606 billion interest on domestic debt and P89.278 billion for interest on foreign debt.
The government borrows from both local and foreign lenders to plug the funding gap.
Gross borrowings as of October dropped by 6 percent to P2.75 trillion from a year earlier.
For 2021, the state has programmed a P1.26-trillion debt service bill, 31% higher than the P962-billion bill in 2020, Business World added.
Tags: #BureauOfTreasury, #publicdebt, #amortization