DBM expects government spending to ramp up by end of 2017

This photo, taken Jan. 3, 2017, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno holds a press briefing in Malacañang. (Photo by TOTO LOZANO / Presidential Photographers Division)

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) expects the government to boost its spending for the last two months of 2017 after expenditures rose by 28.2percent in October.

According to the DBM, government spending in October has reached P226.9 billion, bringing cumulative disbursements from January to October at P2.241 trillion, or a 10-percent increase year-on-year.

“We expect government disbursements to ramp up further in the last two months of the year, especially with the one-year validity of the 2017 appropriations,” Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The government is committed in its full-year disbursement target of P2.909 trillion,” he said.

The DBM noted the increases in spending for infrastructure, social welfare operations, relief work, and higher compensation for civilian and military personnel as among the factors that boosted national government spending this year. /atm