The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on Thursday said the government has a 50 percent chance of falling behind its full-year target deficit of 3 percent of GDP, or P482 billion for the year.
For the first 10 months of the year, the government’s expenditures totaled P2.241 trillion, which expanded by 10 percent from the P2.037 trillion recorded in 2016, according to the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) data.
Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said the government had programmed a P482.1-billion deficit for this year, equivalent to 3 percent of the country’s GDP.
“It could be because disbursements are lower than programmed, or actual revenues are higher than programmed, or both. With two months to go before the end of the fiscal year, we are hoping that actual deficit would be closer to target deficit,” Diokno told financial reporters.
From January to October, revenues totaled P2.007 trillion, expanding by 10.2 percent from the P1.821 trillion recorded in the same period for 2016.
“We may or may not fall behind the deficit target in 2017. Year-to-date, deficit is about 50 percent of [the] target deficit. It’s 50-50 because there are a lot of surprises…,” he added.
For the same period, the government’s budget deficit reached P234.9 billion, which showed a growth of 9 percent from the P216 billion in 2016.
According to Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, if the budget deficit for this year falls short of the target or programmed deficit, it may turn out to be very minimal.
“Yeah, but I don’t think it’s going to be very much,” Dominguez said.
The 2017 national budget represents the financial plan of the Duterte administration, this translates to a budget of P3.35 trillion for 2017. The budget plan showed an 11.6 percent increase from the 2016 of P3 trillion.
