Philippines’ budget deficit rises by 12 pct in March
MANILA: The Philippine national government’s year-on-year budget deficit increased by 12.04 percent to 210.3 billion pesos (roughly 3.8 billion U.S. dollars) in March, data from the Bureau of Treasury showed.
“The higher fiscal gap was brought about by an 11.99 percent decrease in government receipts even as spending was lower by 2.62 percent,” the bureau said in a statement on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the bureau said the cumulative budget gap for the first quarter of 2023, amounting to 270.9 billion pesos, dropped by 14.51 percent to 46 billion pesos on a year-to-date basis as revenue collections improved by 4.38 percent during the period.
According to the bureau, government revenue collections amounted to 258.7 billion pesos in March, 11.99 percent lower than last year. Nevertheless, year-to-date revenue for the first quarter still surpassed the 784.4 billion pesos collected in the same period in 2022.
The bureau said the national government’s expenditures for March decreased by 2.62 percent to 468.9 billion pesos, mainly due to the lower national tax allotment shares of local government units and the timing of significant releases for some government aid programs.
Likewise, the bureau said the resulting overall expenditure of 1.1 trillion pesos for the first quarter slightly dropped by 1.06 percent on a year-to-date basis caused by lower interest payments for January. (1 peso equals 0.018 U.S. dollar) Xinhua
