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.