Marcos admin breached budget deficit ceiling in H1

MANILA, Philippines – The Marcos administration exceeded its budget deficit limit in the first half of 2025 after narrowly missing both its spending and revenue targets. This happened amid a gradual fiscal consolidation program.

Latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) showed the government logged a budget gap of P765.5 billion in the first six months, which it needed to plug with borrowings. This was 24.69 percent bigger compared with a year ago.

A budget deficit indicated that the government spent beyond its means, which is typical in developing economies like the Philippines. But data showed the January-June shortfall overshot the P760-billion deficit ceiling of the government by 0.63 percent or P4.8 billion.

READ: Gov’t back to budget deficit in May, but smaller

The BTr said total revenues in the six months ending in June grew by 5.15 percent to P2.26 trillion. This missed the target receipts of P2.28 trillion by 0.89 percent or P20.4 billion.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue saw its collections surge by 14.11 percent to P1.55 trillion. But it fell short of its P1.58-trillion goal by 1.52 percent.

The Bureau of Customs, however, posted a measly 0.71 percent revenue growth to P458.8 billion.

This was lower than the agency’s target collections of P461.4 billion in the first half, after the government lowered the tariffs on rice and electric vehicles.

Meanwhile, government expenditures in the first half grew by 9.49 percent to P3.03 trillion.

This was an underspend of 0.51 percent or P15.6 billion against the target disbursements of P3.04 trillion.