The Department of Finance (DoF) will focus on reducing the governments budget deficit in its medium term fiscal plan, incoming Finance Secretary and outgoing Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno said.

When President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. recently met with members of his economic team, his marching order was for them to produce a medium-term fiscal plan for the next six years.

The first half of that — 2023-2025 is a detailed fiscal plan. Well plan to submit that to Congress for ratification. Thereafter, the budgets for 2023-2025 will be in accordance with the plan. So the main goal is to reduce the deficit-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio by the end of his term, Diokno said.

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The governments budget deficit increased to P316.8 billion in the first quarter of this year, putting it at 6.4 percent of GDP.