Infrastructure spending eases in May’

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August 3, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Infrastructure spending dropped further in May as it was largely impacted by restrictions imposed during the election period.

According to the Department of Finance, the ban on disbursements during the elections constrained the rollout and funding of several infrastructure projects.

Infrastructure and other capital outlays fell by 9.2 percent to P123.8 billion in May from P136.4 billion in the same month last year, reflecting a slowdown in government disbursements.

Finance Undersecretary Domini Velasquez attributed the decline to the recently concluded national and local elections, which led to restrained government spending in May.

“Likely because we had an election ban, so it will catch up. The target will be met in terms of infrastructure spending, that’s what we will make sure of,” she told reporters.

“There was an election ban this year, but we saw an increase in infrastructure spending in the first quarter, as some projects were advanced in anticipation,” Velasquez added.

From January to May, spending on infrastructure was reduced by nearly P5 billion or 0.9 percent to P557.8 billion from P562.6 billion in the same period last year.

Month-on-month, however, the May numbers seemed to pick up, higher by about P38 billion than April.

In April this year, the country’s spending dropped to P85.8 billion from P118.9 billion in the same period last year, or nearly a 30-percent decline.

Velasquez expressed confidence that the government will meet its full-year targets, with spending projected to accelerate in the coming months as election-related restrictions are lifted and project implementation resumes.

“Hopefully, it will, since the election ban lasted for almost a quarter. It wasn’t a total ban – critical infrastructure projects were still allowed – but there were limitations on spending. Still, we expect it to pick up after the ban period,” she said.