The government’s budget deficit surged 160.7 percent in September to P96.2 billion from P36.9 billion a year ago, as expenditures exceeded the target for the period and revenue collection barely grew.
“The wider fiscal gap is due to a strong spending performance, outpacing revenue growth,” the Bureau of Treasury said in a statement.
This pushed total fiscal deficit in the first nine months to P378.2 billion, up by 78 percent from a year ago. It also accounted for 72 percent of the P523.7-billion programmed deficit for 2018.
Data showed that government expenditures hit P298.6 billion in September, up by 26 percent from P237 billion disbursed in the same month in 2017.
Cumulative disbursements in the nine-month period also surged 24 percent to P2.49 trillion from a year earlier. It also surpassed the spend target for the period by 3 percent.
The Treasury said that as of end-September, about 74 percent of the P3.37 trillion budget was already disbursed.
Meanwhile, revenue collection increased by only 1 percent in September to P202.4 billion as the Bureau of Internal Revenue failed to meet its target collection for the month.
Nine-month revenue collection grew 17 percent to P2.1 trillion from P1.8 trillion. It also outperformed the programmed collection by 4 percent.
BIR collected P1.44 trillion in the first nine months, up by 11 percent from a year ago, but still behind the January to September target by 2 percent.
The Bureau of Customs generated P434.6 billion in revenues during the period, a 34 percent increase from the same period last year and surpassing the target by 4 percent.
Collections from the other offices reached P125.5 billion in the first nine months, up 43 percent compared to the same period last year.
Debt interest payment amounted to P32.7 billion in September, up 24 percent from P26.4 billion last year.
“The higher interest bill was primarily because of coupon payments for RTBs issued in December 2017 and June 2018,” the Treasury said.
Interest payments rose 9 percent to P273.1 billion in the nine-month period.
Excluding interest payments from total spending, the national government recorded a primary deficit of P63.6 billion in September, higher than the P10.5 billion primary balance in 2017.
This brought the primary balance in January to September to P106.9 billion, a reversal of the P35.9-billion primary surplus posted in the same period last year.
The Development Budget Development Committee earlier set a deficit ceiling of 3 percent of gross domestic product in 2018 and 3.2 percent in 2019.