THE national government’s debt payments as of end-September this year have already exceeded the amount it paid for the entire 2020, data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed.
The government’s debt service bill from January to September has hit P963.86 billion, eclipsing the P962.47 billion for the full-year 2020.
Year-on-year, debt payments in the nine-month period have risen by 15.47 percent from P834.72 billion in the comparable period in 2020.
It is also equivalent to 74.7 percent of the programmed P1.29 trillion for debt service by the end of 2021.
As of end-September this year, amortization continued to outpace interest payments.
Cumulative amortization payments from January to September amounted to P624.51 billion, jumping by 19.7 percent year-on-year from P521.74 billion.
Likewise, interest payments stood at P339.35 billion, up by 8.43 percent from last year’s P312.97 billion.
Amortization refers to the repayment of loan principal over time, while interest payment refers to a payment determined by the interest rate of an account.
For September alone, state debt payments dropped by 26.48 percent to P54.45 billion from P74.06 billion last year.
Broken down, interest payments inched up by 10.36 percent to P47.86 billion from P43.37 billion a year ago.
Meanwhile, amortization payments plunged by 78.52 percent to P6.59 billion from P30.7 billion in the same month last year.
The national government’s outstanding debt as of end-September this year ballooned to another record high of P11.92 trillion, already breaching the government’s expected level of debt stock of P11.73 trillion by the end of 2021.
This was also higher by 27.2 percent or P2.55 trillion than P9.37 trillion in the same period in 2020.
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