Gov’t trimmed fiscal deficit in first 11 months

The national government recorded a budget deficit of P123.9 billion in November, narrower by 3.7 percent from P128.7 billion in the same month last year as revenues grew at a faster pace than expenses, data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed.

Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said November’s cash operations had resulted in a budget deficit of P1.24 trillion in the first 11 months. This meant a decrease of 7.2 percent from P1.33 trillion in the same period in 2021.

Diokno told reporters that the January to November deficit was only 75 percent of the P1.7 trillion that the government had expected to spend beyond its revenues in full year 2022.

Eleven-month revenues climbed to P3.3 trillion, which was P503.1 billion or 18.1 percent above last year’s intake.

The finance chief said with just one month left in the year, revenues already represented 99 percent of the full-year goal for 2022. Of these, tax revenues accounted for P2.96 trillion, which rose 17.5 percent from P2.52 trillion a year ago.

Also, nontax revenues jumped by 24.5 percent to P317.7 billion from P255 billion.

91% of budget spent so far

Meanwhile, national government spending reached P4.51 trillion, 9.9 percent higher than the P4.1-trillion comparative 11-month bill last year.

Diokno said the government had spent only 91 percent of the P5 trillion budget earmarked for this year.

In November alone, revenues surged by 16.6 percent to P331.1 billion from P284 billion. The growth in revenues also outpaced that of expenses, which increased by 10.2 percent to P455 billion from P412.7 billion.

First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC) and University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) noted that from January to September so far, the national government had financed about 84 percent of its budget deficit from local borrowings.

This happened as foreign borrowing had become riskier due to rising interest rates abroad.

“We think that the national government will have a full year deficit of only 6.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and so the debt ratio will likely end up below 64 percent in 2022, a maximum of 66 percent in 2023, with the start of decline by 2024,” FMIC and UA&P said.

As of end-September, the government’s debt stock of P13.5 trillion represented 63.7 percent of GDP.