THE national government’s debt payments for the first half of the year amounted to P415.898 billion, with amortization outpacing interest payments for the period, data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed.
The P415.898-billion payment represented a 9.9-percent increase compared to the P378.369 billion made in the same period for 2017.
Broken down, amortization accounted for P250.388 billion, while interest payments took P165.510 billion of the total. Amortization for the six-month period showed an increase of 10.4 percent compared to last year’s P226.792 billion, while interest payments posted an uptick of 9.1 percent from the P151.577 billion recorded in the same period
last year.
Under domestic amortization, redemptions accounted for P170.388 billion—made up of payments to the government’s Bond Sinking Fund (BSF) of P169.517 billion and to the assistance of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) of P871 million.
Foreign amortization accounted for P29.928 billion, with global bond exchange payments comprising P50.072 billion as of end-June this year.
Under domestic interest payments, the government paid out a total of P114.572 billion, with P79.095 billion going to fixed-rate Treasury bonds, P30.269 billion to retail treasury bonds and P4.146 billion for Treasury bills.
Foreign interest payments reached P50.938 billion as of end-June 2018.
June payments
For June alone, the government’s debt payments amounted to P30.756 billion, expanding by 22.8 percent from last year’s P25.043 billion.
Interest payments of P24.065 billion outpaced amortization of P6.691 billion for the month.
The government borrows funds both from onshore and offshore lenders to support its various programs, including its infrastructure buildup projects and social programs, among others.
“[Commercial borrowings] is really for financing our deficit, our amortization, because we have maturities that we have to fund…our cash flow is very strong because of the revenue collections, the performance of the revenue agencies,” said National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon.