National Government's debt service bill rises in May

THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT’S (NG) debt service bill jumped by over 21% in May amid higher interest and amortization payments, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said.

- By Justine Irish D. Tabile

The latest Treasury data showed payments made by the government for its obligations surged by 21.4% to P97.18 billion in May from P80.05 billion in the same month a year ago.

Month on month, however, debt service slumped by 69.1% from P314.99 billion in April.

Debt service refers to payments made by the NG for its domestic and foreign debt.

The bulk or 87% of debt payments in May consisted of interest payments, while the rest were amortization payments.

The government’s interest payments rose by 20.9% to P84.6 billion in May from P69.95 billion in the same month a year earlier.

Interest payments for domestic debt stood at P66.51 billion in May, up by 27.1% from P52.31 billion in the same month in 2025.

Of this total, P41.68 billion went to interest payments for fixed-rate Treasury bonds, P21.09 for retail Treasury bonds, and P3.74 billion for Treasury bills.

Meanwhile, interest payments for foreign borrowings inched up by 2.5% to P18.09 billion in May from P17.64 billion a year prior.

On the other hand, NG’s repayment of its loan principal increased by 24.6% to P12.58 billion in May from P10.09 billion a year ago.