MANILA, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' budget deficit widened to 558.3 billion pesos (10.7 billion U.S. dollars), or 3.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018, slightly exceeding the three percent target by 34.6 billion pesos (664.6 million U.S. dollars), data released by the Bureau of Treasury (BTr) showed on Friday.
The BTr said the improvement from last year's 2.2 percent of GDP deficit performance was underpinned by a 21 percent increase in disbursement matched with on-target revenue growth of 15 percent.
Budget deficit spending is the amount by which spending exceeds revenue over a particular period of time.
The BTr said the government's total revenue collection in 2018 reached 2.850 trillion pesos (54.72 billion U.S. dollars) - higher than the 2.84 trillion pesos (54.53 billion U.S. dollars) programmed for the year and up 15 percent from 2.47 trillion pesos (47.44 billion U.S. dollars) generated in 2017 - thanks to the implementation of Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law which was projected to add 63.3 billion pesos (1.22 billion U.S.dollars) to state coffers in its first year.
"The shortfall in tax collection was more than offset by strong non-tax revenues," the BTr said.
Meanwhile, the BTr said the government spending spiked 21 percent year-on-year to 3.40 trillion pesos (65.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018, exceeding the 3.37 trillion pesos (64.72 billion U.S. dollars) target for the year "as a result of ramped-up spending in public infrastructure, social protection and higher personnel services due to a pay hike for both the civilian, and military and uniformed personnel."
