go through Aubrey Rose A. Inosante, reporter
Budget Secretary Amana F. Pangandaman expects a decline in April due to the election ban, with infrastructure spending rebounding in the next two months.
In with BusinessWorldMs Pangandaman said the grants in May and June “inclined to be strongly carried out”.
“About the election ban, based on the government's historical spending performance, such as in 2019 or 2022 (the presidential election), when the election ban comes into effect in April, we see some temporary slowdowns,” she said on April 15.
The Election Commission's ban on public works spending began on March 28 and will last for 45 days. The midterm elections are scheduled to be held on May 12.
The latest data from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) shows that infrastructure and other capital expenditures fell 19.8% in December 2024 to p146.7 billion, from pesos 183 billion in the same month in 2023.
Over the entire year, expenditure on infrastructure and other capital expenditures jumped 10.1% from P1.2 trillion in 2023 to P1.33 trillion.
Infrastructure expenditure data for the first three months of 2025 has not been released yet.
Ms. Pangadaman, chairing the Development Budget Coordination Committee, said: “Project execution will slow down in the first half of 2025 due to the upcoming mid-term national and local elections.”
Infrastructure spending has slowed similarly in the months leading up to the national poll in May 2022.
Infrastructure and other capital expenditures fell 9.7% in April, but rose 2.1% in May and 51.9% in June.
Despite the slowdown, Ms. Pangandaman remains optimistic that infrastructure spending will be “strong” in 2025.
“We are optimistic that infrastructure spending will remain strong and will be a significant driver of growth for the year, especially in ongoing projects that started and accelerated before the election ban,” she said.
Ms Pangandaman noted that state spending has shown a 13.76% increase to pesos 822 million in the first two months of 2025.
“For example, when we look at other data, we use bank reports from the same period to check the performance of specific agencies’ expenditures, at least the expenditures of the Ministry of Public Works and Highways and the Ministry of Transport – Two major infrastructure departments – “Total is 83.9 billion pesos, more than 50% of the same expenditures over the 54.5 billion PHP in 2024,” she said.
Ms Pangandaman said this only considers notifications of cash allocation (NCA) spending and misses non-NCA programs.
NCA is a cash authorization issued by DBM to central, regional and provincial levelsfRefrigerators and operating units conducted through government banks to meet the agency's cash requirements.
“These figures are somehow demonstrating the relative strength of our expected infrastructure spending,” Ms Pangandaman said.
Oikonomia Advisory and Research, Inc. Economist Reinielle Matt M. Erece said infrastructure spending could increase in 2025.
“In addition to the election season, lower borrowing costs and fiscal spending to boost economic growth may also promote spending in the previous and next periods. I hope that spending will increase in the second half of the year in the second half of the year.” BusinessWorld Thursday.
In addition, Mr. Erece expects public-private partnership projects to “prosper” in lower borrowing costs and fiscal spending.
Meanwhile, Michael L. Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said infrastructure spending has become a major contributor to economic growth and development.
He noted that in recent years, infrastructure spending has risen to 5-6% in GDP, up from less than 2% in the past 20-30 years.
