The national government’s debt payments went up in the first 11 months of 2020 to P888.69 billion, an increase of 10.36 percent from its year ago level, data released by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed.
Data posted on the BTr’s website showed the amount settled rose from the P805.26 billion paid out in the same period in 2019.
Principal payments went up by 12.69 percent to P533.61 billion from the P473.51 billion paid out in the same period a year ago.
Of the total amortization made during the period, P398.89 billion was used to pay local lenders while P134.73 billion was spent to settle foreign obligations.
Meanwhile, interest payments as of November totaled to P355.08 billion, 7.03 percent higher than the P331.75 billion paid out as of the same period the previous year.
Of the said amount, P255.45 billion was paid to domestic creditors while P99.63 billion was for international debt.
On the other hand, for the month of November, debt payments fell 87.93 percent to P26.79 billion from P221.84 billion a year ago.
Amortization stood at P6.75 billion, while interest payments amounted to P20.04 billion.
According to the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing posted on the Department of Budget and Management’s website, the programmed debt service expenditures for 2020 is P1 trillion.
Of the said amount, P584.32 billion is accounted for by principal amortization, while P420.96 billion is for interest payments.
For this year, debt service payments is expected to rise to P1.79 trillion.
The lion’s share will be for principal pay.
