The national government’s debt payments went up by 40 percent year over year in July as amortization and interest payments went up sharply that month, the Bureau of Treasury said.
BTr’s most recent cash operations report showed that the national government paid off its debts worth P1.36 trillion during the first seven months of the year, covering January to July, P972.29 billion more than it paid off during the same time last year.
Paid-off loan principal mostly went to domestic sources, reaching P757.618 billion, while P149.683 billion was sent to lenders outside of the country during the seven-month period.
Payouts for amortization went up by 44.87 percent, from P626.28 billion in January to July 2023, to P907.3 billion.
Interest payments reached P456.66 billion in July, which is 31.98 percent more than the P346 billion paid out during the same month last year.
Meanwhile, the state’s debt payments went up by 26.13 percent year over year, from P64.358 billion to P81.174 billion in July 2024.
Interest payments topped mortgage payments of P1.742 billion this month, coming to a total of P79.432 billion.
July’s total interest payments were P64.550 billion, which is 24.99 percent more than the same month last year. Amortization went up from P880 million to P1.742 billion.
The state owed P15.690 trillion as of the end of July. This was due to more loans for different government projects and debt instruments.
According to an earlier report from the BTr, the national government’s budget deficit narrowed in July as the government’s income grew by more than 10 percent.
In July 2024, the budget gap went down by 39.67% year-over-year to P28.8 billion. This was because income grew faster than spending, by 11.09 percent compared to 5.8 percent.
So far this year, the budget gap has grown to P642.8 billion, which is 7.21 percent more than the same time last year.(TCSP)
