Debt servicing surges to P1.6T

Philippine debt servicing surged last year, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Treasury, or BTr, released over the weekend.

Preliminary BTr data showed the government’s debt payments jumped by 24.03 percent from P1.29 trillion in 2022 to P1.60 trillion in 2023.

The total amount paid last year was higher than the P1.55 trillion debt payment the government had previously planned. Amortization payments slightly surged from P790.32 billion in 2022 to P975.27 billion in 2023, a 23.40 percent increase.

Said amortization accounted for 60.81 percent of the total debt service bill for the year, while the rest went to interest payments.

Broken down, principal payments to domestic lenders rose by 29.45 percent to P854.16 billion in 2023 from P659.83 billion in 2022.

On the other hand, the government’s payments to external creditors fell by 7.18 percent to P121.11 billion in 2023 from P130.48 billion in 2022.

Meanwhile, interest payments jumped 24.95 percent to P628.33 last year from P502.85 billion in 2022.

Interest payments on domestic debt increased by 13.63 percent to P435.74 billion last year from P383.45 billion two years ago. This included P17.16 billion in Treasury bills, P263.17 billion in fixed-rate Treasury bonds, P149.73 billion in retail Treasury bonds, and P5.66 in other bonds.

The Treasury conducts weekly sales of government securities to raise funds for the national government’s projects and programs. Interest paid on external debt rose by 61.29 percent to P192.59 billion from P119.40 billion in 2022.

In December alone, the debt service bill declined to P68.86 billion from P302.12 billion in the same month a year ago. The same Treasury data showed that amortization payments fell to P8.18 billion from P258.52 billion in the previous year.

Amortization payments accounted for 11.88 percent of the total debt service bill during the month, while interest payments had the bulk of the bill.

Interest payments in December soared to P60.67 billion, up by 39.15 percent from P43.60 billion in the same month in 2022.

As of the end of December last year, the government’s total debt amounted to P14.62 trillion. On the other hand, the country’s debt-to-gross domestic product ratio stood at 60.2 percent in 2023.