July Data Confirms Fiscal Concerns

August 2008 | Market Strategy

As we had been anticipating, the Philippines' run of budget surpluses has come to an end after a PHP15.4bn (US$33.9mn) fiscal shortfall was recorded in July. Having posted budget surpluses in each of the preceding three months, higher government spending (which grew 14.1% y-o-y compared to 12.7% in the previous month) and a 2.5% y-o-y decline in overall revenues saw the government's accounts slip into the red, pushing the overall year-to-date deficit to PHP33.4bn (US$735.7mn).

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