budget
National budget for 2024: A Budget Badly Made (Part 2)
August 25, 2023
FEATURES
Band-aids are not necessarily a bad thing. Social spending can be wielded to improve people’s conditions – which is important in itself even if not prioritized by the administration. But it can also be used to increase overall aggregate demand and stimulate the economy – which presumably even a narrow, growth-fixated mindset would appreciate.
National budget for 2024: A Budget Badly Made
August 25, 2023
FEATURES
Contrary to incredible “pro-poor” claims, the proposed 2024 national budget’s numbers tell a much different story about the administration’s priorities.
Marcos Jr administration’s 2024 budget priorities
August 18, 2023
The government’s budget has for years been biased for big-business infra, debt-servicing and military, while allocations for social services, agriculture and labor have been lacking. The Marcos Jr administration’s 2023 budget was no different – how about the proposed 2024 budget?
On the Marcos Jr admin’s “ayuda”
March 2, 2023
IBON: Ayuda budgets slashed amid false claims of recovery
August 27, 2022
The Marcos Jr administration’s 2023 proposed national budget defunds social protection even if millions still suffer the aftershocks of the government’s harsh pandemic lockdowns and as economic rebound fades.
Gov’t, not pandemic, caused record deficits and debt – IBON
March 5, 2022
Had the Php5.3 trillion gross borrowings in 2020 and 2021 been spent on ayuda and producer subsidies, and less on infrastructure and debt servicing, economic rebound would have been bigger, revenues would have recovered faster, and there would have been less need for borrowing.
Debt benefits
January 22, 2022
The national government deficit and debt are historically large amounts and so easy to raise alarms about. But if current borrowing is used productively, this debt burden is actually not necessarily unmanageable.
Yearstarter: Seeking better normal in 2022
January 14, 2022
The administration that is exiting and the new one entering can take a more rational and humane approach to recovering and reforming the economy.
Big budget for infra agencies, low disbursement under Duterte
October 3, 2021
The Duterte administration budgets so much for infrastructure but isn’t even able to spend all of it. The proposed 2022 infrastructure budget is even bigger — shouldn’t more of the allocation be used for health, ayuda and small business support instead?
