The Marcos administration’s budget deficit remained well below the first-quarter ceiling on the back of slower revenue and government spending, data from the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) showed. Based on the DBCC quarterly fiscal program, the national government expects a P298.7 billion fiscal deficit from January to March. However, the actual gap incurred at end-February amounted to only P60.6 billion. The first two-month budget gap is equivalent to just 20.3 percent of the first-quarter program, given the government an available fiscal headroom of P238.1 billion for March. Meanwhile, total revenues reached P560 billion at end-February, accounting for 68.4 percent of the P818.7 billion target for the three-month period. To hit the goal, the government needed to raise P258.7 billion in March alone. The government’s first two-month revenue haul, however, grew 14 percent compared with P490.5 billion in the same period last year. On the hand, the government expects public expenditures to hit P1.117 trillion in the quarter ending March. But actual government spending from January to February amounted to only P620.6 billion, or  55.5 percent of its first-quarter target. The Marcos administrated should have spent P496.4 billion in March to hit the target. At end-February, expenditures marginally increased by 0.16 percent to P620.7 billion from P619.7 billion a year earlier. In 2023, the economic managers expect the national government’s budget deficit to hit P1.499 trillion, equivalent to 6.1 percent of the economy, or gross domestic product (GDP). Based on the BDCC program, the government expects its budget deficit to reach P472.78 billion in the second quarter, P334.95 billion in the third-quarter and P392.97 billion in the final three-months of 2023. This year’s fiscal deficit ceiling of the Marcos administration is narrower than the actual P1.614 trillion incurred in 2022, which was equivalent to 7.3 percent of GDP.