Fiscal targets up for review next year

MANILA, Philippines — Economic managers are scheduled to review the country’s medium-term fiscal framework (MTFF) to ensure that targets remain aligned with current risks here and abroad.

Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) chair and Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said the economic team is set to revisit the MTFF as mandated by Congress.

“There’s a provision in our MTFF that we should review it by 2025,” Pangandaman said.

“Assuming that we have new numbers by the end of the year, by January we already have to sit down again and we have to submit it to Congress since they passed it,” she said.

Based on the resolution passed by both houses, the MTFF is subject to review and updating after three years of its crafting or in 2025 to reflect current economic conditions and developments.

The MTFF aims to attain short-term macro-fiscal stability while remaining supportive of the economic recovery and to promote fiscal sustainability.

It also aims to consolidate the government’s resources so that these are mobilized and utilized in order to gain the maximum benefit and high multiplier effects for the economy.

Pangandaman said the DBCC would likewise look at the outcome of the policy meeting next week, as well as other revenue targets.

The Budget chief maintained that as of now, there are no factors that could contribute to the lowering of the targets.

“But we also take into consideration the risks like natural disasters which we usually have at the latter part of the year. Otherwise, we are very positive,” she said.

The overall goal of the MTFF is to reinvigorate job creation and poverty reduction by steering the economy back to its high-growth path in the near term.

It likewise recognizes the importance of a fiscal consolidation and resource mobilization plan to include measures such as rightsizing of government structures and personnel and encouraging localized investment and growth programs.