The national government debt payments increased in October due to bigger maturing obligations, data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed.

Debt servicing hit P27.19 billion in October this year, higher by eight percent compared with P25.5 billion in the same month last year, the Treasury bureau reported.

Interest expenses, which accounted for 81 percent of the total debt servicing during the month, went up by 6.5 percent to P22.07 billion from P20.72 billion a year earlier.

Domestic interest payments increased by 11 percent from P13.69 billion to P15.22 billion, while offshore interest expenses reached P6.85 billion, down by 2.5 percent compared with P7.03 billion in the same month in 2019.

Total amortization, meanwhile, jumped 14 percent to P5.12 billion from P4.48 billion last year. Of that amount, payments to local creditors declined by 41 percent to P329 million from P564 million in the previous year.

Foreign amortization expenses, on the other hand, went up by 22 percent to P4.79 billion in October from P3.91 billion a year ago.

In the first 10-months of the year, the Duterte administration’s debt payments doubled from only P583.42 billion last year to P1.162 trillion.

Based on the Treasury report, total debt servicing this year rose due to the P300-billion payment made to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in September to settle the national government’s loan for coronavirus response.

In March, the national government borrowed P300 billion from the BSP through a repurchase agreement with the Treasury.

Amortization expenses jumped by threefold from P268.95 billion to P826.86 billion at end October. The “advances to BSP” in September accounted for 36 percent of the total.

Interest payments, however, increased at a much slower pace of 6.5 percent to P335.04 billion from P314.46 billion in the previous year.

Earlier, the treasury reported that the national government’s total borrowings in the first 10-months of the year hit P3.224 trillion, higher by 233 percent compared with P967.55 billion in the same period last year.

The government needed to borrow to bridge its widening budget deficit due to dwindling revenues brought about by the economic downturn.

The Philippines is in recession this year after its economy slid by 11.5 in the third quarter, 16.9 percent in the second quarter, and 0.7 percent in the first.

In the first three quarters of the year, the country’s gross domestic product contracted by 10 percent.