MANILA, Philippines - The Duterte administration inherited a budget balance on a deficit less than half of this year's cap last June, putting plans to speed up spending in and out of the capital later on the year on track.
For the first six months, the budget gap -- which indicates more revenues were spent than earned -- widened to P120.32 billion, the Bureau of the Treasury reported on Wednesday.
This was a reversal of the P13.75-billion surplus a year ago, but was only around 42 percent of the original cap of P283.7 billion for 2016, equivalent to two percent of economic output.
The new government revised the goal to 2.5 percent upon taking over.
"Economic managers under the Duterte administration vowed to accelerate public spending by fast-tracking infrastructure development...," the Department of Finance (DOF) said in a statement.
"The national government also plans to ramp up infrastructure spending outside Metro Manila," it added.
Broken down, revenues inched up one percent to P982.04 billion by the end of June, while disbursements rose 14 percent to P1.221 trillion.
In June alone, the deficit reached P45.19 billion, 38 percent down from last year as revenues rose 13 percent and expenditures went down seven percent.
The DOF, under new management, reiterated criticisms on the previous administration's "persistent underspending despite healthy revenue growth."
Breaking down expenditures, actual agency spending accelerated 17 percent, while debt interest payments decreased two percent by the end of June, data showed.
Most debts were paid in pesos amounting to P103.88 billion, while their foreign counterparts reached P49.83 billion. The former was down five percent, the latter up six percent.
On the revenue side, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) increased collections 11 percent, while that of the Bureau of Customs went up seven percent year-on-year.
BIR and Customs, which is overseen by the DOF, accounted for more than 90 percent of state revenues with P783.42 billion and P190.55 billion, respectively.
The Treasury contributed P63.7 billion, while other offices raised P55.21 billion. Both dropped five and 56 percent from last year's levels.