Philippine deficit drops in September

The Philippine government's deficit in September declined by 43 percent to 18.6 billion pesos (431.5 million U.S. dollars) from the same period last year, a senior government official said on Wednesday. Year-to-date overall fiscal shortfall amounted to 101.2 billion pesos (2.35 billion U.S. dollars), which was well within the government's target of 144.5 billion pesos (3.35 billion U.S. dollars) for the first three quarters of the year, Philippine Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said, adding that growth on both the revenue and expenditure marked strengthening fiscal fundamentals. Revenue collections reached 127.3 billion pesos in September, 20.9 percent or 22 billion pesos higher compared to the same period in 2012, while actual disbursements for the month amounted to 145.9 billion pesos, reflecting a 5.7 percent increase, year- on-year, the Department of Finance (DOF) said. Total collections for the first nine months rose to 1.27 trillion pesos, 13 percent higher over comparable collections of last year, while total expenditures from January to September this year reached to 1.36 trillion pesos, a 12 percent increase over the same period in 2012, it added. (1 U.S. dollar equals to 43.1 pesos)