DBM: Infrastructure spending up 49.7% to P728B at end-November 2018

As the government finished building more roads as well as school and health facilities, the amount it spent on infrastructure as of end-November last year jumped 49.7 percent year-on-year to P728.1 billion.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) reported on Thursday that expenditures on infrastructure and other capital outlay in the first 11 months of 2018 climbed from P486.5 billion during the same 11-month period of 2017.

In November alone, infrastructure disbursements grew 43.6 percent to P62.9 billion from P43.8 billion during the same month a year ago.

The amount spent on infrastructure last November was nonetheless 33.3-percent lower than October’s P94.4 billion.

In a statement, the DBM attributed the “solid” infrastructure spending numbers to “completed road infrastructure projects by the Department of Public Works and Highways, repair and rehabilitation of school buildings and facilities of the Department of Education and state universities and colleges, and acquisition of medical equipment of the Department of Health.”

Last Wednesday, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said the share of infrastructure spending to the gross domestic product (GDP) likely reached 6.2 percent last year, slightly lower than the 6.3-percent posted in 2017.

But Diokno had noted that the infrastructure spending-to-GDP ratios during the first two full years of the Duterte administration were the highest across all the five administrations post-Marcos.

Diokno had said the ambitious “Build, Build, Build” program was expected to raise the share of infrastructure expenditures to 7 percent of GDP by 2022.

Of the 75 flagship projects worth a total of at least P2.2 trillion under “Build, Build, Build,” 31 (worth P514.8 billion) would be completed in 2022, while the 44 others (P1.7-trillion worth) would likely start implementation during the Duterte administration.

As of November last year, 35 “Build, Build, Build” projects worth P1.5 trillion were already approved by the National Economic and Development Authority Board chaired by President Duterte./lzb