DEBT payments made by the national government as of the first quarter of 2019 amounted to P220.179 billion, increasing by 11.09 percent from the P198.2 billion recorded in the same period for 2018, with amortization outpacing interest payments for the period.
Data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed the breakdown of payments: amortization for the three-month period stood at P112.409 billion and interest payments, P107.77 billion.
Amortization payments in the first quarter of 2019 rose 11.25 percent compared to the P101.038 billion recorded in 2018, while interest payments registered a 10.92 percent uptick compared to the P97.162 billion in 2018.
For the month of March alone, the government debt payment amounted to P42.801 billion, or a 26.23-percent uptick from the P33.906 billion recorded in the same month for 2018.
March interest payments amounting to P36.552 billion outpaced that of amortization, P6.249 billion.
Interest payments made for March represented a 32.68-percent increase from P27.549 billion in 2018, while amortization posted a 1.7-percent decrease from the March 2018 level of P6.357 billion.
Under interest payments, fixed-rate Treasury bonds comprised the bulk of the payments for the month with P16.284 billion, Treasury bills with P1.583 billion, and retail Treasury bonds, P8.984 billion.
Domestic interest payments for the month hit P26.915 billion, while foreign interest payments amounted to P9.637 billion.
The majority of the amortization payments for the month went to the domestic agrarian reform beneficiaries at P344 million, while foreign accounts were paid P5.905 billion.
Earlier, the BTr said the national government has programmed its gross borrowings for both domestic and foreign IOUs at P1.19 trillion, with the government eyeing a borrowing mix of 75:25 with a bias for domestic borrowings.