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Business Insight
Wednesday, September 4, 2O!9

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BYAI{GEIA CEUS of , lha zCI:ii E,i b;ud in CongrqsS "was a purely leglla- At last month's Development
.

e4perdi "r..,greal<*ed
e$.land'.irhe.r.Eomestie rive,matter.?' . Budget Coord.inadon Commit-
economy. .
' .

Lll.h. economtc rnanagers are . Earliet, Deputy Speaker Luis tee briefing at the Lower House,
hoping legislarure will pass the "National government rrn- Raymund Villafuerte moved ro P-ernia said the economy could
budget on time so the country derspCndifigl. s.i;i€'stiffi d ::iat have the referral of the General grow below 5 pe{ceflc in 2A20
will nor suffer ftom the adverse around Pt78 billion the first fu Appropriations Bill to dre appro- if the proposed budget for
effects of a reenacted budget. half of the year). This is about priations comminee widrdrawn next year is not approved into
"We encourage the legisla- two p€rceot of first semest€r *!frc
will not commenr on iL laur and a reenacted budgei is
rure to pass the budget on time nominal GDP (gross domestic S[i/e confident that Congress
afe implemented initead.
after due deliberations, as the product),'i the DOF said in its will pass the pioposed 2020 If such happens, the Philip-
coosequffis Of .qpira ,CIn:.... economic bulletin. national budget in due tjrne," pises will likely postthe slowest
reenacted budget as what hap-
,l'A catch-up program has
a Avisado said. grourth rate since the 3.7 percent
pened this 1'ear are extremely been adopred by the implemern- Sought for comment, Et- CDP recorded in 201l. and
deuimenral to the narion, espe- ' ing age,ncies. This viill boost nesto Pernia, Eocioeconomic the first time since iOt2 tnrt' lr
9i4{gfte..disad1igx1taged,'l C b$:iir: growth performance for the ptanning secretary, said "that's will fall below 6 pergent. This
Dominguez, secretarf of the second semester," the agency riskv.ll does not. take into iccount
Department of Financi (DOE,
told reporters yesterdal..
added, "(Foremosr) obiective is thq grormh of the Philippine
Wendel Avisado. Departrnerrt budget must be passed on economy for this year.
The DOF said the delay of Budget and Managemint act- F.rne . A repeat of 2019 will be a
rn the passage by Congriii rrg secretary- sard whathappened disaster once again," Pernia said. ,See;PAS$,}*.1P,,gger !

"V'e will have regressing economic growth
performance, probably below 5 per&nt or
something on thaf border," pernia iaid.
In the fusthalf of 2019,the economyposted
a lower-than-expected growth of 5.5 percent,
amid the continuing effect of the ielavej
passage of the 2019 budget coupled with rhe
election ban.
The- economy will have to grow by an aver_
age of at least 6.4 peicent in the seiond half
to reach the low-end of the full_year growth
target of 6 to 7 percent.
"Our growth regressed. We could have
percenr. Butwe only did 5.5 percent.
Th.l.d-{,5
That's a frrll one percenrrge
economic gror.r,th," Pernia said,
Meanwhile, the DOF in its press staremenr
said expendirures declined by 0.g percent in
the first semester of
2079, the frsi drop ex_
perienced during the first semester since 201 1.
'This is a significant reversal from the 20.5
percent rise in the same semester of 201g. This
is due tothe four and a half month delav in the
approval of the General Appropriations Act bv
Congress," the DOF said. '
- Expenditure effort declined to 1g percent,
lovrer than the 1,9.42 percent ...ord.i in th.
PASS'-
first semester of 2018 due to the teenacted
budget.
. National government (NG) revenues, on
the other hand, rose 9.7 percent in the frst
semester of 2019.
'Tax revenues grew 10.1 percent,
with Bureau
of Internal Revenue collections rising 10.6
percent and Bureau of Customs colleitions
up 8.5 percent.
The DOF said this is due to the second
phase of the Tax Reform fot Acceleration and
Inclusion Law and continued tax administra_
tion refotms.
Non-tax revenues rose 6.9 percent due to
poini regression in the higher collecrion of dividend iemittances on
NG shares of stocks, guarantee fees and share
in the profits of the philippine Amusement
and Gaming Corp.
Revenue effort rose by 0.44 percentage point
to 17.52 percent in the frst semesrer of 'ZOtr)
compated to 17.08 percentin the same semester
of last year. Tax effort also rose by 0.43 percent-
,
age point, from 15.2 percenr to 15.63 p.r..rt,
the DOF said.
"The moderated grorr,th in expenditures led
to a lower NG deficit, which iettled at 0.4g
percent of GDP," the DOF said.