Editor’s note: This article appeared on Sanggu’s Bantay Presidente 100 last July 10, 2010 and was co-authored by Anthony Sabarillo (AB EC-H ’12), AVP for AcaRnDs and Mikolo Ilas (AB EC ’12), Finance Deputy.
One of the main problems of the new Aquino administration is addressing the budget deficit, or the discrepancy between government spending and government revenue. The issue merited extensive media time recently due to its nature as one of the inherent problems the President has inherited from the previous regime.
How did we get to the point of big deficits and debts?
Budget deficit is projected to exceed the previous government target of Php 293 billion. While four economic research institutions (Action Economics, ANZ, ATR Kim-eng, ING Bank) forecast the government hitting the Php 293 billion deficit, others place it to as high as Php 362 billion. The government target itself was 3.5% of the gross domestic product (or GDP, in which government revenue or expenditure is included), while the higher estimates put it to even 4.3% of GDP.
