MANILA – Newly-appointed Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor Benjamin Diokno said that the economy turned out to be the big gainer in 2018, even if the government slightly exceeded last year’s budget deficit cap of 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) after it hit 3.2 percent.
Diokno said spending is above programmed because they spent more on infrastructure.
Data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed that the budget gap reached P558.3 billion last year, higher than the previous year’s P350.6 billion and the P523.7 billion ceiling.
Revenues amounted to P2.85 trillion, higher than the programmed P2.846 trillion and the P2.473 trillion collections in 2017.
Expenditures, in turn, reached P3.408 trillion, higher than the P3.37 trillion program and the P2.823 trillion in the previous year.
Diokno said the ratio of infrastructure spending to gross domestic product (GDP) last year is twice that of the proportion of deficit to domestic output.
Earlier, the Department of Budget Management (DBM) said infrastructure outlays from 2017-18 or the first two full years of the current administration averaged at 6.3 percent of GDP, way higher than the 3 percent under the second Aquino government, the 1.6 percent under Arroyo, 1.8 percent under Estrada and 1.7 percent under Ramos.
The Duterte administration targets to increase infrastructure spending to about 7 percent of GDP at the end of its term in 2022.
“We’re not able to cover our expenses but we’re able to invest more. In the past it’s the reverse,” Diokno said. (PNA)
