Philippines' budget deficit widens to US$1.1b in July

[MANILA] The Philippine government had a budget deficit of 50.7 billion Philippine pesos (S$1.5 billion) in July, which brought the shortfall in January-July to 171.0 billion peso, the Department of Finance said on Tuesday.

The July shortfall was wider than the previous month's 45.2 billion peso gap and the previous year's 32.2 billion peso deficit.

This year's budget deficit goal was set at 388.9 billion pesos or 2.7 per cent of GDP.

REUTERS