MANILA - The Philippines' posted a budget surplus of P29.9 billion ($672 million) in August, 36 percent higher than a year ago.
Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima attributed the budget surplus to the "fast-paced expansion of revenue collections for the month."
This brought the year-to-date budget balance to a deficit of P25.9 billion, just a tenth of the programmed deficit for the year.
The government wants to keep its budget deficit this year at P266 billion, or 2 percent of GDP, from 1.4 percent of GDP last year
Meanwhile, public spending jumped 5 percent to P140.11 billion in August from P133.24 billion a year ago.
Revenues grew by 10 percent to P169.98 billion in August from P155.14 billion in the same month in 2013.
The budget deficit in the eight months to August totaled P25.87 billion, 69 percent lower than P82.61 billion in the same period last year.
For the first 8 months of the year, government spending went up 6 percent to P1.296 trillion, while revenue collections rose 12 percent to P1.27 trillion.
SOURCE: ABS-CBN
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