MANILA, Philippines — The Duterte administration’s budget deficit narrowed in April, with the so-called “base effects” accounting for both the sharp pick-up in revenues and double-digit drop in spending during the month. The government’s fiscal gap shrank 83.78% year-on-year to P44.4 billion in April, the Bureau of the Treasury reported Monday. That massive contraction was enough to narrow the year-to-date deficit at an annualized 1.63%, data showed. “We expect the budget deficit to narrow in the coming months as authorities rein in spending to limit the impact on debt,” he said in an e-mail. That, in turn, would bloat the deficit to 9.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021 from 8.9% originally.

Source: Philippine Star May 25, 2021 09:56 UTC