March 12 ----- The national government increased its debt service by almost a quarter last year as payments for interest and amortization soared. Data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed that the Marcos administration’s debt payments reached P1.6 trillion from January to December 2023, higher 24 percent than the P1.29 trillion paid out in the previous year.
The bulk of the debt service was for amortization payments at P975 billion, a 19 percent increase from the P790 billion recorded in 2022. Of the total, domestic principal payments reached P854.165 billion, 29 percent higher compared with a year ago’s P659.834 billion. Foreign amortization, meanwhile, decreased by seven percent from P130.489 billion in 2022 to P121.113 billion last year.
On the other hand, interest payments plummeted by 25 percent to P628 billion from P502 billion. Nearly 70 percent of the interest payments, equivalent to P435.74 billion, was paid to domestic creditors. The government paid some of the interest for P263 billion in fixed-rate Treasury bonds, P17.166 million in Treasury bills, and P149 billion in retail Treasury bonds.
Aside from payment to local lenders, the government settled P192.591 billion in interest owed to foreign financiers last year. In December alone, debt payments amounted to P68.866 billion, down by 77 percent compared with P302.125 billion in the previous year. Of that amount, interest and principal payments reached P60.678 billion and P8.188 million, respectively.
The country’s outstanding debt reached a record-high P14.62 trillion as of the 2023 end-year, up around 9 percent or P1.20 trillion from the end-December 2022 level of P13.18 trillion. For 2023, the government’s debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio increased to 60.2 percent, still below the 61.2 percent target of the Marcos administration.
Source: philstar.com
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