DEBT servicing by the national government surged in February from a month and year earlier due to higher amortization, Bureau of the Treasury data showed.
At P430.64 billion, debt payments were 725.7-percent higher compared to the P52.15 billion recorded a year earlier. It was also higher than the P137.67 billion in January this year.
To date, debt payments hit P568.31 billion, 258.18-percent higher than the P158.66 billion recorded in January-February 2025.
Amortization drove the increase, surging to P381.7 billion in February from just P3.71 billion a year earlier and P9.85 billion in the previous month, with domestic amortization accounting for the bulk at P378.5 billion.
Interest payments, meanwhile, dropped to P37.08 billion from P42.07 billion and P94.6 billion a year and month earlier, respectively.
Local creditors accounted for almost all interest payments in February at P37.08 billion, lower than the P42.06 billion seen a year earlier and P94.6 billion recorded in January.
Fixed-rate Treasury bond payments comprised P19.78 billion, followed by T-bills (P4.6 billion) and retail T-bonds (P11.95 billion).
The Treasury earlier this month reported that the national government’s outstanding debt hit a new record high in February, driven primarily by additional domestic borrowings to fund national development projects.
At P18.16 trillion, outstanding debt grew by P1.53 trillion, or 9.19 percent, from P16.63 trillion a year earlier. It was also higher than January’s P18.13 trillion.
Domestic debt increased to P12.48 trillion, up by 11.19 percent from the year-earlier P11.22 trillion and also higher than the previous month’s P12.32 trillion.
External debt, meanwhile, dropped to P5.68 trillion from January ’s P5.81 trillion due to “favorable foreign exchange rate movements, which decreased the peso value of US dollar- and third currency-denominated obligations by a combined P136.43 billion.”
