Strong peso, debt management helped lower PHL interest payments — BoT data

The country's interest payments in the first eight months of the year was reduced by 7.58 percent on the back of a strong peso and better debt management efforts, Bureau of the Treasury (BoT) data showed. From January to August, interest payments, which form part of public sector spending, amounted to P196.607 billion, down from the P212.726 billion recorded last year. The figure is way below the P251.609 billion programmed for the first eight months of the year. In August alone, interest payments slightly eased by 10.14 percent to P20.906 from P23.264 billion the previous month, data showed. Aside from a stronger peso, which helped ease the country's interest burdens, the government's economic managers said the country's better financing position also helped. In the past twelve months, the country received a series of rating upgrades from global credit watchers, the latest of which was from a Fitch Ratings upgrade on the country's long-term foreign currency debt to just a notch below investment grade. According to the latest fiscal report, the government would have achieved a primary surplus without interest payments in its expenditures. Netting out interest payments, the national government acquired a primary surplus of P162.114 billion for the eight-month period, or a reverse of the primary deficit a year earlier. During the period, government recorded a budget deficit of P34.493 billion, significantly lower than the P228.104 billion recorded in the same 2010 period. In August alone, government posted a P9.220-billion surplus, from P1.319-billion in the same comparable period. —JMT, GMA News