{"id":322305,"date":"2026-03-10T11:04:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T11:04:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/322305\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T11:04:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T11:04:15","slug":"philippines-budget-deficit-hits-record-us26-5-billion-as-corruption-probe-bites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/322305\/","title":{"rendered":"Philippines budget deficit hits record US$26.5 billion as corruption probe bites"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An investigation into allegedly corrupt flood-control projects worth billions of pesos is beginning to ripple through the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/philippines?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Philippines<\/a>\u2019 public finances, slowing infrastructure spending and adding uncertainty to the government\u2019s investment-driven growth strategy.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The budget deficit widened 4.68 per cent to 1.58 trillion pesos (US$26.5 billion) in 2025, Treasury Bureau data showed, surpassing 2024\u2019s record of 1.51 trillion pesos.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Despite slowing disbursements amid tighter scrutiny of public works projects, the deficit still breached the government\u2019s 1.56 trillion-peso ceiling.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">At 5.63 per cent of gross domestic product by year-end, the deficit was an improvement on 2024\u2019s 5.7 per cent but remained above the government\u2019s 5.5 per cent target.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Rescuers evacuate a woman from her flooded home in Iligan, Lanao del Norte province on February 6. Photo: AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/c4028ea5-e16a-40ba-8b3f-5c4ab9885f74_6b2ed09a.jpg\" title=\"Rescuers evacuate a woman from her flooded home in Iligan, Lanao del Norte province on February 6. Photo: AFP\"\/>Rescuers evacuate a woman from her flooded home in Iligan, Lanao del Norte province on February 6. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">This shows the corruption investigation is already taking its toll on government spending and investor confidence, analysts say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An investigation into allegedly corrupt flood-control projects worth billions of pesos is beginning to ripple through the Philippines\u2019&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[174133,174132,138,174134,174130,219,174136,31936,111,139,69,4291,174129,174135,174131,174137,57090],"class_list":["post-322305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-asuncion","tag-bureau-of-the-treasury","tag-business","tag-central-bank-of-the-philippines","tag-corruption-perceptions-index","tag-economy","tag-flood-control-projects","tag-imf","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-philippines","tag-ricafort","tag-rizal-commercial-banking-corporation","tag-transparency-international","tag-union-bank-of-the-philippines","tag-us-president-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}