Gov’t debt service bill down by 82% in Feb to P 52.2B
The Marcos administration carried a lighter debt service burden in February on the back of a big decline in amortization payments.
The government paid P52.2 billion to its creditors at home and abroad in the second month of 2025, down by 82 percent year-on-year, according to the latest cash operations report of the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr).
This brought the two-month debt service bill to P158.7 billion, accounting for 8 percent of the Marcos administration’s plan to spend P2.1 trillion on debt payments this year.
Dissecting the report of the Treasury, total principal repayments significantly fell by 98 percent to P3.7 billion. That sent the January-February amortizations to P5.8 billion, also down by 98 percent.
The BTr said the state had paid P121 million in principal amount it owed to local creditors in February, a huge drop from the P243.6 billion it settled a year ago. Year-to-date, domestic amortizations amounted to P438 million, marking a 99.8-percent decline.
Meanwhile, the government spent P3.6 billion on amortization payments to foreign lenders, up by 66 percent. This put the two-month tally to P5.3 billion, falling by 94 percent.
The contraction in principal payments more than offset the slight growth in interest costs, which inched up by 1.3 percent to P48.4 billion in February. From January to February, interest expense amounted to P152.9 billion, climbing by 25 percent.
Broken down, the government paid P42.1 billion in interest to lenders onshore, a 22-percent increase from a year ago. That put the two-month domestic interest expense to P114.4 billion, higher by 37 percent.
