The government’s disbursement performance in the remaining months of the year is expected to be propelled by infrastructure and maintenance expenses, according to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Based on a report posted on the DBM website, infrastructure spending and maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) will continue to drive disbursements for the remaining months of the year, with 56.1 percent and nearly 52 percent of their full-year program, respectively, expected in the second half of the year.
“For infrastructure spending, this will constitute payments/progress billings from ongoing construction works/projects, including those that were started or accelerated during the summer season; while maintenance expenses will mostly comprise of the requirements of various education and agriculture sector related programs,” the DBM said.
“In addition, the compensation adjustments of civilian government personnel pursuant to Executive Order No. 64, s. 20243 will result in higher personnel services expenditures. The salary increase will be implemented in four tranches – beginning this year to 2027,” the agency added.
The DBM said that the expected expenditures will hopefully help support strong economic growth by creating demand in the construction sector or supporting other related services industries, while also facilitating the recovery of the agriculture sector.
“Nevertheless, the government remains cautious of the impact of inflation on growth and overall quality of life of the Filipinos and hence will continue to work hard to ensure food security and stabilize prices of goods/commodities, as well as undertake measures to further improve public service delivery and spending,” the DBM said.
It was earlier reported that the DBM has already released 94.2 percent of the government’s full-year 2024 budget as of end-July.
Specifically, this translates to P5.44 trillion of the P5.77 trillion 2024 full-year program as of July 31.
The remaining balance for the year is P333.57 billion.
Meanwhile, national government’s disbursements for the first half of 2024 totaled P2.76 trillion, significantly higher by 14.6 percent year-on-year.
According to the DBM, major drivers of spending growth for the period are infrastructure and other capital outlays, interest payments and MOOE.
Specifically, the increases were attributed to infrastructure spen-ding due to the implementation of various road infrastructure programs and completion of some ongoing projects nationwide, as well the capital outlay projects under the revised Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Program; interest payments due to coupon payment for bonds issued 2023 and additional issuances, and higher treasury bill and foreign exchange rates; and maintenance spending.
Notably, the overall infrastructure disbursements as of end-June 2024, which also account for the infrastructure components of transfers to local government units as well as subsidy and equity to government-owned and -controlled corporations, reached P720.5 billion, up by 18.4 percent from the comparable period.
This was equivalent to 5.7 percent of GDP vis-a-vis the 5.6 percent full-year target for this year and 5.3 percent outturn for the first semester of last year.
