Infrastructure spending rises in October

December 27, 2024 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Infrastructure spending  rose by 2.5 percent in October, with disbursements reaching P110 billion, according to the Department of Budget and Management.

Based on the latest national government disbursement performance report of the DBM, state infrastructure expenditure and other capital outlays increased in October from P107.3 billion in the same month in 2023.

The slight uptick was attributed to larger expenditures by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for its ongoing road and bridge network infrastructure programs.

However, growth was tempered by lower disbursements from the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Department of National Defense (DND), reflecting varied timing in the release of funds and payment schedules for their flagship capital outlay projects.

“Lower disbursements were posted by the DOTr and DND due to the different timing of releases or schedule of payables for their big-ticket capital outlay items,” the DBM said. “These, in turn, weighed down the growth of infrastructure spending for October.”

For the 10-month period, infrastructure spending rose by 13.2 percent to P1.09 trillion from P964.9 billion in the same period a year ago.

This brought overall government spending to P4.73 trillion from January to October, 11.5 percent higher than the P4.24 trillion in the comparable year-ago period.

The strong spending performance was driven by higher disbursements for maintenance and other operating expenses, rising by 21 percent to P851 billion from P703.5 billion a year ago.

Personnel services expenditures also increased by 4.9 percent to P1.15 trillion, while interest payments rose by 23 percent to P638.7 billion and tax expenditures surged by 54.1 to P34.9 billion.

“However, lower subsidy and net lending partially tempered the growth of disbursement for the ten-month period,” the DBM said.

Subsidies to government corporations declined by 19.9 percent to P117.2 billion as of October from P146.3 billion a year ago while net lending contracted by 68.1 percent to P6.3 billion due to the change in the maturity profile of the debt obligations of the National Food Authority (NFA).

“Some P6.9 billion advances were released to the NFA as of end-October this year in line with its maturity schedule. In contrast, its availment for the same period last year amounted to P19 billion,” the DBM said.