The debt service bill surged further in March from a year ago on the back of higher amortization expenses, data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed over the weekend.

The government’s debt payments leapt by 275.27 percent to P533.523 billion in March from P142.171 billion a year ago.

Month-on-month, debt service payments surged by 81.7 percent from P293.615 billion in February.

In March, 80.42 percent of debt servicing went to amortization while the remaining 19.58 percent went to interest payments.

500% more

Overall amortization expenses, also called principal payments, jumped to P462.579 billion from P81.273 billion in the same month a year ago.

The BTr settled P455.910 billion with domestic lenders and P6.669 billion to foreign creditors.

Meanwhile, interest payments rose by 16.5 percent to P70.944 billion from P60.898 billion in the same month in 2022.

Broken down, interest paid on domestic debt increased by 19.14 percent to P55.705 billion from P46.754 billion last year.

Domestic debt consisted of P23.722 billion in retail Treasury bonds, P29.112 billion in fixed-rate Treasury bonds, P2.843 billion in Treasury bills, and P28 million in other bills.

Interest on foreign debt increased by 7.74 percent to P15.239 billion from P14.144 billion a year ago.