The national government reported debt payments amounting to P83.806 billion in January this year.
Based on the latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), paying down core government debt in January was an expansion by 19.7 percent, from only P70.006 billion in the same month last year.
Of the total, interest payments aggregated P43.516 billion, while amortization payments totaled P40.290 billion. Year-on-year, interest payments grew by 2.7 percent, from P42.353 billion in 2017, while amortization payments jumped by 45.6 percent, from P27.653 billion the previous year, respectively.
Broken down, domestic interest payments reached P24.468 billion, while those made to foreign entities had a P19.048-billion share of the total.
Payments made for fixed-rate Treasury bonds formed the bulk of the share of payments reaching P17.845 billion, while retail Treasury bonds came in next with P6.264 billion. Amortizing Treasury bills required another P359 million
Domestic amortization payments reached P38.992 billion for the month, higher than the P1.298 billion as amortization on foreign debt.
Amortization is the redemption of debt papers sold by the BTr, as well as the assumed liabilities from state-run corporations. Domestic redemptions for the month reached P38.992 billion.
Earlier, the BTr released a revised Treasury-bill and Treasury-bond sale schedule for the second quarter this year, with the planned issuance seen to raise around P325 billion, increasing by P85 billion, from the P240 billion in the first quarter this year.
National Treasurer Rosalia V. de Leon said the revised schedule allows the BTr to sell potentially more IOUs than before to help feed an ambitious spending program that focuses on the buildup of public infrastructures not just this year but for the balance of the term of President Duterte.
In 2017 debt payments amounted to P680.466 billion, with amortization payments outpacing interest payments by 19.1 percent. Based on BTr data, the P680.466 billion disbursements for debts in 2017 was 13.8 percent lower than the P789.965 billion appropriated for debt servicing in 2016.