Philippines Budget Deficit Narrows in December
2026-03-03 08:36
By
Jereli Escobar
1 min. read
The Philippines government's budget deficit narrowed to PHP 313.2 billion in December 2025 from PHP 329.5 billion in the same month a year earlier.
Government revenues declined 3.3% year-on-year to PHP 304.3 billion, while expenditures fell at a faster pace of 4.2% to PHP 617.4 billion.
Stronger tax collections from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (+11.1%) and the Bureau of Customs (+9.8%) supported to limit the shortfall, although non-tax revenues plunged 59.3% to PHP 25.7 billion.
For the full year 2025, the fiscal deficit widened 4.7% to PHP 1,576.8 billion from PHP 1,506.4 billion in 2024.
Total revenues inched up 0.8% to PHP 4.5 trillion, driven by a 7.3% rise in tax receipts, while expenditures also increased 1.8% to PHP 6 trillion, driven by higher spending on LGU allocations, interest payments, and civilian salary adjustments that offset cuts to GOCC subsidies.
For the full year 2025, the total primary deficit eased to PHP 712.7 billion, down from PHP 743 billion last year.