The government incurred a budget deficit of P22.1 billion in September, as the 17-percent growth in expenditures outpaced the 6-percent rise in revenues during the month.
Data from the Finance Department showed the budget deficit in September was four times than the P5.2-billion deficit recorded a year ago, but was 31 percent short of the government’s deficit target of P32.3 billion for the month.
The September deficit brought the total budget deficit in the first nine months to P25.5 billion, or 18 percent lower than P31.1-billion shortfall recorded a year earlier and 89 percent short of the P229.5-billion deficit target for the period.
Government revenues in September grew 6 percent to P164.1 billion while public spending increased 17 percent to P186.2 billion.
Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said spending in the fourth quarter was expected to pick up. “It’s Christmas, there’s greater urgency to get projects done. Secondly, elections is upcoming, so there’s greater pressure to finish [infrastructure projects]. We’ve also dealt with many of the bottlenecks, both implementation and policy bottlenecks. So those three things combined will further boost spending in the last quarter,” Abad said.
