Gov’t has only P249.9B of 2011 budget to spend

MANILA, Philippines—Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said that after nine months of government spending, 15.2 percent or P249.9 billion remained of the national budget in 2011.

Abad said disbursements were expected to jump in the remainder of the year due to the P72-billion stimulus package that was meant to jump-start expenditures for 2012.

The rest of the P1.64-trillion national budget for 2011 “would mostly cover earmarked and non-discretionary items such as salaries and benefits of national government employees as well as interest payments on debts,” he said.

The budget chief said some P70.5 billion of the unreleased funds were earmarked for personnel services under department budgets and special purpose funds aside from P134.6 billion for interest payments.

“To raise the disbursement level for the rest of the year and generate additional economic activity given the lower-than-projected economic growth during the first semester, the government has launched a P72 billion disbursement acceleration program (DAP),” Abad said.

He said the DAP covered projects that were chosen based on their relatively wider multiplier impact on the economy, their beneficial effect on the poor and their quick translation into disbursements.

“As approved by the President, the DAP will be implemented immediately with the issuances of allotments from the 2010 continuing appropriations and the 2011 unreleased funds and the corresponding cash authorizations,” Abad said.

He said the DAP would boost disbursements in the fourth quarter and jumpstart the implementation of the 2012 expenditure program.

“This will provide the cushion or additional domestic economic activity needed to avoid the further slowdown of the economy in view of the fiscal and economic problems plaguing the United States and Europe, and the resulting decline of the country’s export prospects,” he added.

According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the volume of electronics exports might further contract in the months ahead as local manufacturers reported declining orders from customers abroad.

The BSP said the sluggish economy of the United States and the debt problems of eurozone nations—the Philippines’ key export markets—resulted in waning global demand for electronics, the country’s major export product.