THE high revenue collection growth reported in the first six months has allowed the government to post its first fiscal surplus since 1997 even though expenditures for the period also accelerated.
In an economic bulletin, Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran, also chief economist at the Department of Finance (DOF), said the accelerated growth in revenue collection in the first half was the highest since 1994.
“The exceptional increase in revenue collection led to the revenue effort rising from 15.5 percent last year to 17.1 percent, a 1.6-percentage-point rise, the highest first-semester revenue effort increment ever achieved since 1994,” Beltran’s economic bulletin said.
Total revenues in the first half amounted to P1.085 trillion, while total expenditures in the same period amounted to P1.072 trillion, or a surplus of P13.7 billion.
Beltran stressed that, while the government reported a fiscal surplus in the first half, expenditures still grew by 8.5 percent, dispelling fears that the government might have underspent again like last year when resulted in the government was forced to downgrade its local output target measured as the gross domestic product (GDP).
Beltran said that this year, although the government already hinted of downgrading the GDP growth target from the original range of 7 percent to 8 percent, the strong fiscal position of the government should still allow for higher GDP growth in the second half.
First half GDP growth figures released last week proved a disappointment to some economists who anticipated growth better than 5.6 percent as reported. This was way below the target of 7 percent to 8 percent.
“The strong fiscal position shall provide adequate fiscal space to enable the economy to push economic growth to higher levels during the remainder of the year, even with the ongoing global financial volatilities and threats of El Niño,” Beltran said.