PH gov’t debt payments jumped 18.5% in June

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government’s debt payments jumped 18.5 percent in June, driven by a near-doubling in amortization and the continued rise in interest costs.

According to the latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr), the government paid P77.2 billion to service its debt in June, up from P65.1 billion in the same month last year.

READ: PH government debt stock tops P19 trillion

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This pushed the national government’s total debt payments for the first six months of the year to P1.226 trillion, up nearly 60 percent from P768.1 billion in the same period in 2025.

The amount represented 61.1 percent of the government’s P2.005-trillion debt service program for the full year.

The higher debt payments came as the national government’s outstanding debt climbed to a new record of P19.07 trillion at the end of June, surpassing the P19.06-trillion program for the first half of the year.

This debt stock is projected to plug a budget gap of P1.658 trillion for 2026, equivalent to 5.4 percent of gross domestic product.

For June, the increase was largely driven by higher principal repayments, with amortization surging 91.5 percent to P14.8 billion from P7.7 billion a year earlier.

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READ: PH government debt stock tops P19 trillion

Payments to domestic creditors rose ninefold to P540 million from just P54 million, while amortization for external obligations climbed 85.8 percent to P14.2 billion from P7.7 billion.

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Meanwhile, interest payments rose 8.7 percent to P62.4 billion in June from P57.4 billion a year earlier.

Interest payments to domestic creditors edged up 3.7 percent to P39.9 billion from P38.5 billion.

Payments to foreign creditors increased 18.9 percent to P22.5 billion from P18.9 billion.

READ: PH debt hits new peak at P18.55T

Amortization payments alone reached P743 billion in the first semester, equivalent to 70.4 percent of the P1.055-trillion amount programmed for the year.

Interest payments, meanwhile, totaled P483.7 billion from January to June, or 50.9 percent of the P950-billion program for 2026. INQ