RP posts budget surplus

RP posts budget surplus

MANILA (UPI): The Philippine Central Bank announced yesterday
a budget surplus of 14.6 billion pesos (US$567 million) for the
first four months of the year, or 228 percent higher than the
target 6.39 billion pesos ($248 million).

The Central Bank said the surplus came mostly from proceeds of
privatization efforts as revenue collections from most state
agencies failed to even meet their targets.

The Metro Pacific Group paid the government last March 19
billion pesos ($738 million) in downpayment for the sale of 214
hectares of Fort Bonifacio, a former military camp in the suburbs
of metropolitan Manila planned for conversion into an industrial
and commercial complex.

Receipts from the privatization of other state-owned
properties, meanwhile, totaled 6.45 billion pesos ($250 million).

The $567 million surplus represents 81 percent of the 18
billion pesos ($699 million) total budget surplus posted last
year, the country's first fiscal surplus in 20 years.