A faster economic expansion will be a factor that will narrow the budget deficit and reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio, an economist said Thursday.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said in a report the government’s push to further reopen the economy towards greater normalcy fundamentally boosted tax revenue collections on a year-on-year basis in November.
“Faster economic growth would also fundamentally further add to tax and other government revenue collections and also help reduce the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio,” Ricafort said.
Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said Wednesday the government’s budget deficit in the first 11 months declined by 7.2 percent to P1.236 trillion from P1.332 trillion a year ago as the double-digit expansion in revenues outpaced the single-digit growth in expenditures.
Diokno said the 11-month budget deficit represented 75 percent of the P1.7 trillion program for the whole year. “Year to date, revenues climbed to P3.3 trillion, P503.1 billion or 18.1 percent above last year’s number and representing 99 percent of the P3.3 trillion goal for 2022,” Diokno said.
