Gov't spends less in third quarter.

(From BusinessWorld (Philippines))

Byline: Felipe F. Salvosa II and Karl Lester M. Yap

Lower expenses of the central government and state firms and more cash from public financial institutions and local governments brought down the overspending of the entire public sector by more than half, to P74.6 billion as of September, data released yesterday showed.

The consolidated public sector fiscal deficit also went down as a percentage of economic output, at only 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) from close to 5% a year ago.

For the nine-month period, the government anticipated a public sector deficit of P165 billion, a billion less than last …