The national government’s budget gap swung to a deficit of P14.1 billion in January as expenditures on public goods and services inched up while revenue collections dropped by more than a tenth due to a prolonged pandemic-induced recession.
The Bureau of the Treasury’s latest cash operations report released on Wednesday showed a reversal of the P23-billion budget surplus posted during the same month last year.
Disbursements rose 1.2 percent to P274.8 billion last January from P271.6 billion a year ago even as so-called “productive” spending net of interest payments grew by a faster 8.4 percent year-on-year to P227.8 billion.
In a statement, the Treasury attributed the higher pri…
Keep on reading: Gov’t posts budget deficit of P14B in January 2021