By Chino S. Leyco     The national government’s budget deficit widened in July this year after public spending significantly jumped during the month, data from the Bureau of the Treasury showed yesterday. The Duterte administration ended last month with a fiscal deficit of P86.4 billion, an increase of 71 percent compared with P50.5 billion in the same month last year, a treasury report submitted to the Department of Finance (DOF) showed. In July 2018, the national government's revenues totaled P241.7 billion, up 24 percent year-on-year from P194.6 billion, while expenditures rose 33 percent to P328.1 billion from P194.6 billion in the same month last year. According to the Treasury, 90 percent of the government’s total revenues came from taxes while the remaining was from non-tax sources. In the first seven months of the year, the national government’s fiscal deficit reached P279.4 billion, higher by 36 percent compared with P204.98 billion in the same period last year. Revenues, on the other hand, jumped 21 percent at end-July this year to P1.652 trillion from P1.371 trillion in the previous year. Expenditures, meanwhile, reached P1.932 trillion, higher by 22 percent compared with P1.576 trillion in the same period in 2017. The end-July budget gap is equivalent to 54 percent of this year’s ceiling of P523.7 billion, equivalent to three percent of the country’s economy, as measured by its gross domestic product (GDP). For 2018, the Duterte administration’s economic team expects that government revenues would reach P2.846 trillion, while public spending to hit P3.37 trillion.