Growth goal in sight as spending peaks

Economic managers are optimistic the 6.5-7.5 percent growth target for 2017 will be achieved on expectations the government will be able to ramp up spending on goods and services this year.

“Growth momentum will be sustained in 2017 with the national government intending to spend P2.909 trillion, equivalent to 18.2 percent of GDP [gross domestic product] and 14.1-percent higher than the P2.549-trillion actual disbursements in 2016,” the Cabinet-level, interagency Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) said in its yearend report on the 2016 National Budget released last Sept. 25.

The DBCC said the 2017 expenditure program “covers the requirements of major social sector programs such as the K-12 program, universal health care, and social pension and protection which [are] a significant contributor to the government final consumption expenditure.”

“It also considers the huge investments to public infrastructures with some P549.4-billion cash program to support the requirements of infrastructure and other capital expenditures this year,” the DBCC added.

The economy expanded by an average of nearly 6.5 percent in the first half, settling at the lower end of the government’s target range.

The DBCC noted “government spending remains to be one of the primary drivers of growth and hence plays a pivotal role in uplifting the lives of more than 104 million Filipinos.”

The DBCC said the disbursements had been slow in the first few months of the year vis-a-vis the previous year only because of “one-off and election-related expenditures.”

Moving forward, expenditures were “expected to pick up in the succeeding months beginning the summer season toward the end of the year as the bulk of the spending requirements of line agencies (54 percent of the total disbursement program) is lodged in the second semester,” the DBCC said.

The latest Bureau of the Treasury data showed that as of August, the national government’s disbursements totaled P1.778 trillion, up by a tenth from P1.619 trillion during the first eight months of last year.

“Steady expenditure growth from May to August allowed the year-to-date spending to increase by 10 percent over the 2016 figure,” the Treasury had said.