In a statement, the Treasury said the national government’s fiscal position registered a deficit of P558.3 billion in 2018, wider than the P523.7 billion original cap set by economic managers. Despite this, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said the country’s deficit-to-GDP ratio remains “manageable.”A deficit happens when government spending exceeds the revenues it generated. According to BTr data, the country’s revenues last year amounted to P2.85 trillion, slightly breaching the P2.846 trillion program. In particular, the government’s tax collections in 2018 increased by 14 percent to P2.56 trillion from P2.25 trillion in 2017, but fell behind the P2.68 trillion tax revenue program. Broken down, P1.95 trillion of the total tax revenues of the government was collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

Source: Philippine Star February 22, 2019 16:00 UTC