News Update PHL govt pays creditors P22.4B in Oct. debt service

The Philippine government paid its creditors P22.39 billion in debt service last month, Bureau of Treasury data released Monday showed. Principal payments accounted for P9.69 billion and interest payments totaled P12.7 billion. The interest paid on domestic loans amounted to P5.319 billion and the interest on foreign loans was P7.386 billion. For principal payments, government spent P6.881 billion on local debts and P2.809 billion on foreign obligations. According the Department of Finance, the debt service under government’s fiscal program for the year is P823.3 billion or P80.5 billion more than the P742.8 billion last year. The debt service payments in October brought the January to October debt service payments to P619.905 billion or lower by 2 percent from P633.429 billion a year earlier. — VS