THE country’s debt service payments continued to decline based on the January-September data released by the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr).
The data showed government debt service contracted 7.67 percent to P889.85 billion in the January to September period from P963.78 billion in the same period last year.
However, BTr data showed, debt service payments soared 280.16 percent to P206.996 billion in September 2022 from P54.45 billion in September 2021.
The bulk of the government’s debt service payments were accounted for by amortizations which reached P489.87 billion in the January to September period.
BTr data showed this represented a decline of 21.55 percent from the P624.43 billion posted in the same period last year. In September, amortizations soared to P147.099 billion in 2022, a 2,131.14-percent increase from the P6.59 billion posted in September 2021.
Meanwhile, interest payments posted double-digit growth in the nine-month period ending in September and in the month of September this year.
BTr data showed interest payments reached P399.98 billion in the January to September period this year, a 17.87-percent growth from the P399.35 billion in 2021.
For the month of September, interest payments grew 25.16 percent to P59.897 billion from P47.86 billion posted in September 2021.
The BTr data showed interest payments made domestically reached P306.21 billion in the January to September period while foreign interest payments reached P93.77 billion during the period.
For September, domestic interest payments reached P47.72 billion while foreign interest payments amounted to P12.18 billion during the period.
Domestic interest payments were composed mainly of interest payments for Fixed Rate Treasury Bonds amounting to P196.687 billion in the January to September period and P24.03 billion in September.
This was followed by Retail Treasury Bonds of P96.54 billion in the January-September period this year and P22.53 billion in the month of September.
The country’s debt service from January to August declined by a fifth on an annual basis to P682.85 billion due to lower amortization payments, preliminary government data showed.
Latest BTr data showed that the national government’s debt service during the 8-month period was P226.475 billion lower than the P909.325 billion total debt payment recorded in the same period of last year.