The national government’s total debt payments in the first half of the year jumped by 41.29 percent as both amortization and interest payments rose from the previous year’s level, 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 June stood at P1.28 trillion, higher than the P907.93 billion recorded during the same period a year ago.
Amortization rose by 44.78 percent, to P905.56 billion from the P625.47 billion paid out in January to June 2023.
On the other hand, interest payments as of June totaled to P377.23 billion, which went up 33.55 percent from the P282.46 billion paid out as of the same period the previous year.
In June alone, debt payments amounted to P66.08 billion, down 25.25 percent from the year ago level of P88.4 billion.
Amortization amounted to P10.43 billion, significantly lower than the P35.51 billion in the same period last year.
Interest payments meanwhile totaled to P55.64 billion, up from the June 2023 level of P52.88 billion.
The BTr earlier reported that the national government’s budget deficit in the first half of the year fell below the program set for the period due to the better-than-expected revenue performance as of June.
The deficit in January to June stood at P613.9 billion, 7.24 percent below the ceiling of P661.8 billion.
Revenues exceeded the goal by 3.49 percent while expenditures inched up above program by 0.9 percent.
Year-on-year, the deficit widened by 11.27 percent from P551.7 billion a year ago as both revenues and expenditures recorded double-digit expansions.
For June alone, the deficit narrowed by 7.24 percent to P209.1 billion from P225.4 billion last year as the growth in revenues outpaced that of expenditures.
