PHL govt pays creditors P729.77B 

The Philippine government settled P729.77 billion of debt obligations last year, data released by the Bureau of Treasury over the weekend showed.

 

The figure was up P7.02 billion or about 1 percent from P722.75 billion the government settled in 2011.

 

Principal payments totaled P416.975 billion, down 6 percent from P443.75 billion. The payments comprised P300.59 billion in domestic debt and P143.56 billion in foreign borrowings.

 

A total of P312.8 billion covered interest payments, up 12.11 percent from P279 billion. Interest payments for domestic debts totaled P201.21 billion, and P111.58 billion covered the interests payments for foreign currency obligations.

     

Debt service payments are part of the government's budget allocations funded by tax and non-tax revenues.

      

Most of the debts were in the form of Treasury bonds, with accounted for bulk of interest payments of P157.61 billion last year—up 23 percent from P127.74 billion in 2011.

     

Interest payments for retail T-bonds increased by 50.8 percent to P36.62 billion from P24.29 billion.

     

The government’s outstanding debt totaled P5.44 trillion as of end-December 2012, up 9.9 percent from P4.95 trillion a year earlier, with the Aquino Administration boosting its domestic borrowings.

     

Debts owed to domestic creditors increased b 21 percent to P3.47 trillion, and the obligations to foreign creditors dropped by 5.3 percent to P P1.97 trillion. — VS, GMA News