Finance counsels

The Philippine government said it may cut its 2009 economic target and widen the budget-deficit estimate a third time this year after growth slowed to the weakest pace in a decade last quarter.

A deficit of about 250 billion pesos ($5.3 billion) or 3 percent of gross domestic product “is something that we might put on the table when we” meet as early as this week, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya said in a telephone interview today. “It’s not going to shock the market.”

First-quarter growth cooled to 0.4 percent from a year earlier as the global slump caused exports of Intel Corp. computer chips and other Philippine-made goods to collapse. The government is “committed” to boosting spending to support the $144 billion economy, Finance Secretary Gary Teves said today.

“The lower end” of the government’s 3 no fax payday loans.1 percent-to-4.1 percent GDP target this year “may still be achievable,” Andaya said. “We may have to lower the target but it will have to be something that we must aspire to and is achievable.”

State spending on public works rose more than 60 percent at the end of April from a year earlier, Teves said in a mobile- phone text message today. Spending this quarter will probably be higher than the previous three months, Andaya said.

Tax and tariff collections in the first four months declined from a year earlier, putting at risk the current 199.2 billion-peso deficit target, which is equivalent to 2.5 percent of GDP. The shortfall from January to April was about 56 percent of the full-year estimate.

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