The Philippine external debt service burden (DSB) surged by more than four-fifths to $1.51 billion in January, from $831 million a year ago, driven by a significant increase in amortization.

The latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed that the rise in the country’s servicing of its foreign debt was fueled by a sharp jump in principal payments and a marginal increase in interest payments (IPs).

An increasing external DSB indicates that a larger portion of the country’s financial resources is being used to service foreign obligations.

Amortization, or principal payments, soared more than eightfold to $760 million in January, from $88 million a year ago. IPs also edged up to $745 million from $743 million in the same period last year.

As of end-2025, the Philippines’ total external debt rose by 7.3 percent to $147.65 billion from $137.63 billion at end-2024. Government debt accounted for approximately $94.87 billion, or nearly two-thirds of total, while the private sector accounted for $52.78 billion.

Foreign borrowings were equivalent to 26.4 percent of the country’s gross national income (GNI) as of end-2025, unchanged from the previous year.

Meanwhile, the ratio climbed to 30.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) at end-2025, up from 29.8 percent a year ago.

GNI measures the total income generated by a country’s residents, both domestically and abroad, while GDP accounts for local output.

During the month, the DSB-to-export shipments ratio rose to 26.5 percent from 16.8 percent in January 2025, while the DSB-to-current account receipts ratio increased to 10.7 percent from 6.1 percent a year ago.

Meanwhile, the liquidity buffer strengthened as gross international reserves (GIR) rose to $112.62 billion as of end-January. This resulted in an annualized GIR-to-DSB ratio of 814.1 percent, a sharp increase from 642.4 percent a year ago.

According to the BSP, the foreign debt service burden represents principal and IPs, covering payments on fixed medium- and long-term (MLT) credits, including those from the Washington-based multilateral lender International Monetary Fund (IMF) and new money facilities.

It also includes IPs on fixed and revolving short-term liabilities of banks and nonbanks. However, it excludes prepayments on future maturities of foreign loans and principal payments on short-term obligations.