Despite a sharp increase in the national government’s debt payments in April, over half a trillion pesos was trimmed from total payments in the first four months of the year, leading to a 45.7 percent decline by end-April.

Data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed that the Marcos administration’s total debt financing only amounted to ₱622.9 billion from January to April, a decline of ₱524 billion compared to the ₱1.15 trillion recorded in the same period last year.

A sharp drop in principal payments or amortization significantly contributed to the massive decline.

It fell to ₱335.5 billion, starkly contrasting with the ₱887.2 billion the Marcos administration paid in the first four months last year. This is equivalent to a ₱551.7 billion or 62.2-percent drop.

Notably, the government’s payments to domestic creditors steeply dropped by 77.4 percent from its ₱699.7 billion worth of payments a year earlier. It only paid ₱170.4 billion in the January-to-April period.

Foreign lenders, however, received ₱165.1 billion as of end-April, up 24.6 percent from ₱132.5 billion last year. However, the government’s meager increase in its principal payments to foreign creditors could not offset the massive deflation in domestic payments.

Meanwhile, the government’s interest payments increased to ₱287.4 billion as of end-April, from ₱260.5 billion a year ago. This translates into a 10.3-percent increase year on year.

Both interest payments to domestic and foreign creditors saw increases. It paid ₱209 billion to domestic lenders during the period, jumping by 12.8 percent from last year’s ₱185.3 billion worth of domestic payments.

Broken down, ₱146.1 billion of the payments went towards fixed-rate Treasury bonds (T-bonds), ₱43.2 billion to retail T-bonds, ₱16.1 billion to Treasury bills (T-bills), and ₱3.6 billion to other national government obligations.

Its interest payments to foreign debt sources inched up by 4.3 percent to ₱78.4 billion from ₱75.2 billion.

In April alone, total debt payments reached P280.9 billion, climbing by 73.7 percent from P161.7 billion in April 2024.

During the month, government creditors received ₱95.2 billion in amortization, higher by 148.9 percent from ₱94.2 billion a year prior.

Interest payments, however, declined by 31.3 percent to ₱46.4 billion from ₱67.5 billion in April 2024.

The government lowered its borrowings to ₱1.14 trillion during the first four months, down by ₱28 billion or 2.4 percent from last year’s ₱1.16 trillion, mainly due to the massive decline in borrowings from local lenders.

Gross borrowings during the period accounted for 44.7 percent of the government’s total planned borrowings of ₱2.55 trillion for the year.