The national government’s total debt payments in the first seven months of the year amounted to P614.55 billion, data released by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed.
According to the latest cash operations report, the national government’s debt payments in January to July is 26.33 percent lower than the P834.24 billion paid out in the same period a year ago.
Amortization declined by 46.13 percent to P305.25 billion from the P566.68 billion paid out in the same period a year ago.
Of the total principal payments made during the period, P256.84 billion was used to pay local lenders while P48.41 billion was spent to settle foreign obligations.
Meanwhile, interest payments as of July totaled to P309.31 billion, 15.6 percent higher than the P267.56 billion paid out as of the same period the previous year.
Of the said amount, P238.11 billion was paid to domestic creditors while P71.2 billion was for international debt.
In July alone, debt payments amounted to P156.2 billion, 158.02 percent up from the year ago level of P60.54 billion.
Amortization amounted to P104.11 billion while interest payments totaled to P52.09 billion.
The BTr earlier said July interest payments declined by 11.75 percent due in part to the level effect of the timing of coupon payments for global bonds recorded in July last year.
Year-to-date interest payments rose year-on-year but the BTr said it was still lower by 3.17 percent versus the P319.4 billion program, translating to P10.1 billion in savings.
The BTr also earlier reported that the national government’s total outstanding debt reached P12.89 trillion as of end-July 2022.
It rose by 11 percent from the previous year’s level of P11.61 trillion.
The BTr said the 0.8 percent increase from the end-June 2022 level of P12.79 billion was due to the net issuances of domestic and external loans as well as currency adjustments.
The agency, however, said the debt-to-gross domestic product ratio has improved to 62.1 percent as of the end of the second quarter 2022 from the 63.5 percent recorded in the previous quarter, as the economy continues to recover from the health crisis.
Of the total debt stock, 31.5 percent was sourced externally while 68.5 percent were domestic borrowings.
The national government’s domestic debt amounted to P8.83 trillion, which is 0.7 percent higher compared to the end-June 2022 level of P8.77 trillion.
For July, the BTr said the increase in domestic debt resulted from the net issuance of government securities amounting to P64.33 billion and the P0.74 billion impact of local currency depreciation against the US dollar.
The national government’s external debt, on the other hand, amounted to P4.06 trillion, 0.8 percent higher than the end-June 2022 level of P3.49 trillion.
“The increment in the level of external debt was attributed to the impact of local currency depreciation against the US dollar amounting to P25.77 billion and net availment of external financing amounting to P6 billion. These were tempered by the P0.75 billion effect of third-currency depreciation against the US dollar,” the BTr said.
