The national government's debt service increased by more than half in November of last year as payments for interest and amortization soared.
Data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed that the government’s debt payments reached P193.7 billion in November, a 65 percent increase compared to P56.67 billion paid out a year earlier.
The bulk of the debt service went toward interest payments, totaling P66.65 billion, a 37 percent jump from the P48.54 billion recorded in November 2023.
Of the total interest payments, domestic principal payments reached P48.93 billion, 38 percent higher compared with P35.26 billion a year ago.
Foreign interest payments surged 33 percent, from P13.29 billion in 2023 to P17.72 billion in November.
Amortization payments also increased substantially to P27.05 billion, from only P960 million in the same period the previous year.
Nearly 48 percent of the amortization payments, equivalent to P18.29 billion, went to domestic creditors, with the remaining P8.75 billion paid to offshore creditors.
From January to November, total debt payments amounted to P1.954 trillion, a 27 percent increase compared with P1.534 trillion in the previous year.
Of that amount, interest payments reached P705.33 billion and principal payments reached P1.249 trillion.
Earlier, the Treasury reported that the national government substantially reduced its reliance on borrowing in November, cutting its total by nearly half compared to the same period last year, due to lower domestic borrowing.
Total gross borrowings in November 2024 plunged 48 percent to P65.05 billion from P125.46 billion in the same month last year.
The decline also represents a 49.7 percent decrease from the P129.26 billion borrowed in October this year.
Domestic borrowings were the main driver of this decline, plummeting 59 percent to P48.9 billion in November compared to P121.02 billion in the same month last year.
Based on the Treasury report, this can be partly attributed to the government's successful P100-billion retail treasury bond issuance in November, which likely fulfilled a significant portion of its financing needs.
The domestic borrowings for November this year comprised P30 billion in fixed-rate Treasury bonds (T-bonds) and P18.88 billion in Treasury bills (T-bills).
In contrast, gross external debt increased by 267 percent to P16.16 billion in November from P4.4 billion a year ago. This was comprised of P7.47 billion in program loans and P8.7 billion in project loans.
Despite the November slowdown, cumulative gross borrowings for the first 11 months of 2024 still showed an 18 percent increase to P2.494 trillion compared to P2.101 trillion in the same period of 2022.
Of this total, domestic sources accounted for the majority (76.66 percent), amounting to P1.912 trillion, a 16.5 percent rise from the previous year. External debt also rose by 26 percent to P582.4 billion.
As of the end of November, the government has utilized 97 percent of its planned P2.57 trillion borrowing for 2024, with P1.92 trillion sourced domestically and P646.08 billion from international lenders.