THE national government’s amortization payments to foreign/external sources caused the government’s total debt service to surge 172.51 percent in June, according to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr).
Data showed the country’s total debt service rose to P83.811 billion in June 2019, from P30.756 billion in June 2018.
Of the total debt service in July, over 65 percent of the amount or P54.715 billion was accounted for by amortization payments to foreign financial institutions.
The rest, or P29.096 billion, was accounted for by the country’s interest payments, mainly interest payments for Retail Treasury Bonds (RTBs) worth P12.582 billion.
Other interest payments were made for Fixed Rate Treasury Bonds worth P6.624 billion; Treasury Bills, P2.456 billion; and Others, P1.788 billion.
The country’s total debt service in the January-to-June period or the first semester of the year reached P307.717 billion.
The government’s total interest payments for the first semester reached P180.071 billion, an 8.8-percent growth from the P165.510 billion posted in the same period last year.
In terms of the government’s amortization payments in the first semester, data showed this reached P205.183 billion.
This was an 18.05-percent decline from the P250.388 billion posted in 2018, according to data released by the BTr.