The government’s debt service climbed 40.6 percent year-on-year in May 2024 on higher interest payments, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said over the weekend.
Data from the BTr showed that the debt service reached P68.98 billion in May, higher than P49.04 billion in the same period last year.
This brought the government’s total debt payment to P1.21 trillion in the first five months of 2024, up from P819.52 billion a year ago.
Debt service refers to the total amount to repay the interest and principal on a debt.
The government settled P61.09 billion in debt interest in May, up from P41.3 billion in the same month last year. In the first five months, interest payments climbed to P321.58 billion from P229.66 billion.
Interest payments to domestic creditors amounted to P46.07 billion in May, while those to external creditors reached P15.03 billion.
Broken down, the government paid P26.50 billion in fixed-rate Treasury bonds (T-bonds), P16.87 billion in retail T-bonds, P2.07 billion in Treasury bills (T-bills) and P617 million in other instruments.
Meanwhile, amortization on foreign obligations amounted to P7.79 billion in May, while domestic amortization amounted to P85 million. In the first five months, amortization reached P140.21 billion on foreign loans and P754.85 billion on domestic loans.
The BTr earlier said the national government’s debt jumped 2.2 percent year-on-year to P15.35 trillion as of end-May 2024.
The figure was 1.3 percent higher than the end-April 2024 level of P15 trillion.
Outstanding debt consisted of P10.4 trillion from domestic sources and P4.9 trillion from foreign lenders as of end-May.
External debt increased 4.2 percent from the end-April level.
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