Government likely to meet budget deficit ceiling

The government is on track to meeting its budget deficit ceiling for the year of P75 billion because of enough revenues and lethargic spending, Deputy Treasurer Eduardo Mendiola said yesterday.

“The revenues are not that bad and spending has not really accelerated,” Mendiola said.

As such, he believes the government would not exceed its budget deficit program of P75 billion for the year.

From January to August, the government registered a budget deficit of P31.7 billion as total revenues for the period reached P790.3 billion and expenditures swelled to P822 billion, data from the Finance department showed.

In August alone, the government had a modest surplus of P1.7 billion as total revenues reachd P118.9 billion for the month. Expenditures in August reached P117.2 billion.

The government earlier decided to postpone its balanced budget program to 2010 to direct more funds to pump-prime the economy.

However, government spending for insfrastructure projects has not really accelerated. 

Nonetheless, fiscal authorities warned that the government’s budget deficit could swell to P100 billion due to the global financial meltdown.

In 2009, the government said the deficit could swell to P60 billion from P40 billion previously but economic managers have yet to finalize the numbers.