Nearly half a trillion pesos in total payments were slashed during the first seven months of 2025, with domestic lenders receiving nearly ₱600 billion less in principal payments compared to what they had received from the Marcos administration in 2024.

Data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed that the Marcos administration’s total debt financing only amounted to ₱876 billion from January to July, a decline of nearly half a trillion compared to the ₱1.36 trillion recorded in the same period last year.

This 35.7 percent decline was driven by a massive drop in principal payments or amortization during the seven-month period.

Amortization fell to ₱355.1 billion, starkly contrasting with the ₱907.3 billion the Marcos administration paid in the first seven months of last year. This is equivalent to a drop of ₱552.2 billion or 60.9 percent.

Notably, the government’s payments to domestic creditors plunged by ₱587 billion or 77.5 percent from its ₱757.6 billion worth of payments a year earlier. Almost stagnant from the end-June figure, the government only paid ₱170.6 billion in the January-to-July period.

Foreign lenders, however, received ₱184.5 billion as of end-July, up 23.3 percent from ₱149.7 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 ₱521 billion as of end-July, from ₱456.7 billion a year ago. This translates into a 14.1-percent increase year on year.

Both interest payments to domestic and foreign creditors saw increases. The government paid ₱382.7 billion to domestic lenders during the period, jumping by 18.4 percent from last year’s ₱323.4 billion worth of domestic payments.

Broken down, ₱267.3 billion of the payments went towards fixed-rate Treasury bonds (T-bonds), ₱82.8 billion to retail T-bonds, ₱25.7 billion to Treasury bills (T-bills), and ₱6.9 billion to other national government obligations.

Its interest payments to foreign debt sources inched up by 3.8 percent to ₱138.3 billion from ₱133.3 billion.

In July alone, total debt payments stood at ₱108.1 billion, jumping 33.1 percent from last year’s ₱81.2 billion.

During the month, government creditors received ₱1.8 billion in amortization, the lowest amortization during the year, but still higher by 5.4 percent than ₱1.7 billion in July last year.

Similarly, interest payments jumped 33.7 percent to ₱106.2 billion from ₱79.4 billion in July last year.

To note, the national government’s outstanding debt hit a fresh high of ₱17.56 trillion as of end-July, surpassing the economic managers’ projected year-end level of ₱17.36 trillion.

According to the latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), the country’s debt as of end-July swelled by 12 percent from ₱15.69 trillion in the same period last year, and was ₱ 200 billion higher than the forecast end-2025 debt level.

Even with this trend, breaching ₱18 trillion by year-end remains out of sight, as Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto maintained that the national government’s debt will settle at the programmed level.

For this year alone, the government’s borrowings modestly dipped to ₱1.757 trillion as of end-July from ₱1.759 trillion recorded in the same period in 2024, as lower domestic loans offset a sharp rise in foreign debt.