THE national government disbursed P27.407 billion in May for the payment of some of its debt, with interest payments outpacing amortization for the month, data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed.
That debt payment in May, however, was not even close to the P159.096 billion the government shelled out in the same month in 2018.
Broken down, interest payments accounted for P19.669 billion while amortization took P7.738 billion of the total. Interest payments for the month showed a decrease of 6.83 percent compared to the P21.111 billion made in May 2018.
Under domestic interest payments, fixed rate Treasury bonds accounted for P12.680 billion, Treasury bills with P1.636 billion, and retail T-bonds with P1.459 billion.
Foreign interest payments totaled P3.894 billion for the month.
Amortization for May also posted a decline of 94.39 percent compared to the P137.985 billion made in the same month for 2018, with all payments going to foreign amortization of P7.738 billion.
From January to May this year, the government disbursed a total of P301.426 billion for debt payment. This is 21.74 percent lower than the P385.142 billion the government disbursed for debt payment in the same period last year.
Interest payments for the five-month period totaled P150.975 billion, 6.74 percent higher than the P141.445 billion last year.
Meanwhile, amortization for the same period of P150.451 billion was 38.26 percent lower than last year’s P243.697 billion.
The Department of Finance (DOF) has said last May, it sees a decline in the level of the country’s debt as debt ratios in the first quarter decreased on the back of a “more proactive debt management” by the government.
“Proactive debt management has afforded the Philippines an expanded fiscal space as the level of debt has declined significantly from 87.2 percent of GDP [gross domestic product] in 2006 to 41.8 percent in 2018 [posting]; a 45.4-percentage point decline,” the DOF said.
Hence, the finance department maintained that fears of a forthcoming debt crisis are unfounded.