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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider Banking & Finance devider Gov't debt payments hit ₱2-trillion mark at end-November 2025, tops 2024 level

Gov't debt payments hit ₱2-trillion mark at end-November 2025, tops 2024 level

Interest costs surge

Published Jan 5, 2026 12:00 am  |  Updated Jan 3, 2026 02:15 pm

At A Glance

  • Surging past ₱2 trillion, the national government's debt payments as of end-November 2025 already exceeded the full-year 2024 level as the Marcos administration doubled its efforts in settling due interest both at home and abroad, even as it scaled down principal payments.
Surging past ₱2 trillion, the national government’s (NG) debt payments as of end-November 2025 have already exceeded the full-year 2024 level, as the Marcos Jr. administration doubled its efforts to settle due interest both at home and abroad, even as it scaled down principal payments.
The latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed that the NG repaid a total of ₱2.024 trillion as of end-November 2025, already higher than the ₱2.02 trillion recorded in 2024. Overall debt payments were 3.6 percent higher than the ₱1.95 trillion paid in the same period in 2024.
As of end-November, the country’s interest payments increased by 13.5 percent to ₱800.5 billion from ₱705.3 billion, driven by the administration’s push to ramp up payments to local lenders. Interest payments to domestic creditors climbed 18.1 percent to ₱598.1 billion from ₱502.4 billion in 2024.
Interest payments on government securities (GS) rose across the board, with fixed-rate treasury bonds (T-bonds) increasing to ₱399.3 billion from ₱326 billion, retail treasury bonds (RTBs) inching up to ₱143.6 billion from ₱134.7 billion, and short-dated treasury bills (T-bills) climbing to ₱41.2 billion from ₱30.4 billion in 2024.
Meanwhile, interest payments on the NG’s other obligations declined to ₱9 billion from ₱11.2 billion in 2024.
Interest payments on the NG’s external obligations also inched up by 2.2 percent to ₱207.4 billion from ₱202.9 billion.
Overall interest payments accounted for 39.5 percent of the year-to-date total.
Amortization, which made up 60.5 percent of total, declined by two percent to ₱1.24 trillion as of end-November from ₱1.25 trillion in the same period in 2024.
Broken down, the government reduced amortization to foreign lenders by seven percent to ₱214.9 billion from ₱231 billion. Similarly, amortization to domestic lenders edged down to ₱1 trillion during the period from ₱1.02 trillion in 2024.
Total payments in November alone fell by four percent year-on-year to ₱90 billion from ₱93.7 billion in the same month in 2024.
Amortization during the month dropped sharply by 51.3 percent to ₱12.7 billion from ₱26.1 billion. Interest payments failed to offset this steep decline, rising by just 15.9 percent to ₱77.3 billion from ₱66.7 billion in 2024.
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