Infrastructure and other capital outlays in October declined by 12.9 percent year-on-year, mainly from lower capital spending of agencies as compared to the previous year, data released by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) showed.
According to the latest assessment of the national government disbursement’s performance, infrastructure spending in October closed at P82.2 billion, down by P12.2 billion from the P94.4 billion posted in the same month a year ago.
End-October infrastructure also fell by 5.5 percent to P628.5 billion, from P665.1 billion posted in the first 10 months of 2018.
The DBM said line agencies will try to complete their programs and projects and settle payables before the year ends, which could strongly drive spending.
“Initial treasury data show that NCA (notices of cash allocation) disbursements for the month of November 2019 clocked at a faster growth rate of about 25 percent, outperforming the 20.5 percent increase posted in the previous year,” the DBM said.
National government disbursements for October 2019 stood at P310.8 billion, slightly surpassing the P306.6 billion outturn in the same period last year by 1.4 percent.
This is due to higher personnel services (up 6.9 percent), subsidy to government corporations (366.7 percent), and combined allotment and capital transfer to local government units (20.4 percent).
However, growth for the month was tempered by lower infrastructure spending, maintenance expenditures (-4.9 percent), and interest payments (13.7 percent).
Total national government disbursements as of end-October 2019 grew by 5.1 percent or P141.3 billion year-on-year to reach P2.94 trillion.
