MANILA, March 1 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine government's budget deficit narrowed by 3.45 percent to 1.6 trillion pesos (29.1 billion U.S. dollars) in 2022 from 1.7 trillion pesos (30.9 billion dollars) in 2021, the Bureau of Treasury said on Wednesday.
"The fiscal outturn was driven by revenue growth of 17.97 percent, outpacing the 10.35 percent expansion in government spending," the bureau said in a statement.
It said the 2022 deficit was equivalent to 7.33 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), down from 8.6 percent in 2021 and below the 7.58 percent program.
Meanwhile, the bureau said the budget gap for December widened to 378.4 billion pesos (6.88 billion dollars), 11.94 percent higher than the 338 billion pesos (6.15 billion dollars) recorded a year ago as the increase in public expenditures outweighed the increase in government receipts.
"Netting out interest payments from expenditures, the national government recorded 1.1 trillion pesos (20 billion dollars) primary deficit for 2022, dropping by 10.43 percent from 2021's primary deficit of 1.2 trillion pesos (21.8 billion dollars) and 2.34 percent below program," the bureau said.
On the other hand, the bureau said the primary deficit for December 2022 increased to 334.8 billion pesos (6 billion dollars), up 7.75 percent from a year ago. ■
