Philippines posts $29 billion budget deficit for 2022, within target

MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippine government posted a budget deficit of 1.6 trillion pesos ($29 billion) for 2022, with the gap in December hitting 378.4 billion pesos, the Bureau of the Treasury said in a statement on Wednesday.

The 2022 gap was 3.4% lower than the 2021 shortfall and within the 1.7 trillion pesos programme for the year, it said.

($1 = 55.17 Philippine pesos)

(Reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz and Karen Lema; Editing by Ed Davies)