The decline in national debt payments in October this year, an economist said Sunday, may reflect further reopening of the economy in the future.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort conveyed that statement to Daily Tribune in a Viber message as the government's debt servicing reached P39.82 billion in October, down 55 percent from P89.06 billion paid out in the same month last year.

"Fewer borrowings in earlier months as the economy reopened towards greater normalcy partly resulted in fewer debt payments," Ricafort said.

Debt servicing refers to both interest and principal payments. The debt service burden excludes actual outflows such as rescheduling or refinancing existing debt and converting debt to equity.

Bureau of Treasury data
Data from the Bureau of Treasury showed that principal payments were lessened by 88 percent, from P57.53 billion to P6.63 billion.

Most of the P5.74 billion in principal payments come from payments made outside the country.

Also, interest payments increased from P31.53 billion in 2021 to P33.18 billion in 2022, up by five percent.

Out of the total, domestic interest payments reached P22.41 billion while foreign interest payments reached P10.78 billion.

At the end of October, debt payments reached P929.66 billion, an 11 percent decline from last year when they were worth P1.052 trillion.