The Philippines will change its fiscal targets for 2009 and 2010 to a balanced budget compared to the previous aim of a budget surplus so that it can spend more on infrastructure, Finance Under-secretary Gil Beltran said.
Beltran said the Development Budget Coordination Committee, which sets the economic targets of the government, has approved the changes "in principle." The revisions will be formalised on Monday, he said. "We want to put more funds in capital outlays. Anyway, debt ratios have gone down significantly," Beltran told reporters.
The Philippines aims to limit its budget deficit this year to 63 billion pesos ($1.3 billion), or 0.9 percent of gross domestic product, before it ends nearly a decade of fiscal shortfalls in 2008.
The Philippines' budget deficit shrank in 2006 to 62.2 billion pesos, the lowest in eight years and the third year in a row that the shortfall was below target.
The government is scheduled to released its first quarter fiscal performance on Monday. It has a budget deficit goal of 45.8 billion pesos in the first three months of 2007.