Gov’t debt payments down 48% to P60-B in Feb

MANILA, Philippines – The government debt payments reached P60.439 billion in February, down 48% from P116.52 billion in the same month 2011.

According to Bureau of Treasury data released Thursday, April 12, this brings debt payments in the past 2 months to P195.1 billion total, 19% lower than P242.3 billion paid in January-February 2011.

•     P39.868 billion for principal payments – of which P32.24 billion went to settle maturing domestic obligations. Foreign debts accounted for the rest.
•     P20.57 billion for interest payments – of which P12.85 billion was used to pay off domestic debts and the remaining P7.72 billion was spent on foreign debts.

Of the total net borrowing of P53.48 billion in February, P14.705 billion were foreign debts and P38.775 billion were domestic borrowings.  

The Aquino administration is stepping up efforts to finance its budget deficit, which is projected to hit roughly P280 billion this year.

Finance officials have said they are committed to fix the government’s fiscal position by lengthening maturities of its foreign and local obligations and by improving revenues.

The Philippines, one of the most prolific sovereign debt issuers among emerging markets, needs to raise $500 million more this 2012 to complete its foreign commercial debt program of $2 billion for 2012.

It was able to raise bulk of the program or $1.5 billion in a global bond issuance in January.

However, fiscal authorities have said that the remaining $500 million could be raised from the domestic debt market, which is currently in a cash-rich position. – Rappler.com