Government executes only 9.2% of the budget

With so many needs to combat poverty and close infrastructure gaps, public investment in the first quarter was 13% less than in the same period of 2021. This reached an accumulated amount of almost S/6,058 million, according to the Trading Society Foreign Affairs of Peru (ComexPerú) in its Efficiency Report on Public Expenditure, based on information from the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) .

According to the document, the contraction is explained by the slowdown in public investment by the National Government and local governments.

Thus, the National Government invested S/2,369 million in the first quarter, which represented an advance of only 9.2% of the total allocated budget (S/25,749 million), and 22.5% less compared to the same period last year (S/ 3,056). Only the regional governments registered a positive variation in this period (of 3.5%).

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Less run

The ministries that showed the lowest level of expenditure execution in the first three months were the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations (MIMP), with 0.7% progress; the Ministry of the Environment (Minam), with 3.4%; the Ministry of Education (Minedu), with 3.8%, and the Ministry of Health (Minsa), with 3.5%.

Thus, the MIMP disbursed S/105,843 of the S/14.77 million assigned, in only one of the 4 comprehensive protection projects for children and adolescents; the Minam advanced with 32 of the 62 projects allocating S/10,956 million of the more than S/322 million assigned; Minedu S/163,995 million of the more than S/4.2 billion assigned in 1,229 projects, leaving 298 without advancing, and the Minsa, with an investment of S/ 52,228 million, of the S/ 1,501 million assigned, advancing 93 of 177 projects .

A few weeks ago, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Óscar Graham, explained, in a press conference, that the fall in public investment in the first months of the year corresponded to the programming that is available for the entire year.

Public spending

In the first quarter of 2022, public spending at the national level amounted to S/41,458 million, 5.1% less than what was executed in the same period of 2021, due to the lower performance of the National Government.

Carlos Casas, main professor of the Academic Department of Economics of the Universidad del Pacífico, explained to this newspaper that the first quarter of the year is one of low execution due to the bad habit that exists in the public administration. He indicated that the greatest budgetary execution of public investment is made in the last quarters, where up to 40% of the budget is disbursed.

“The fact that works are generated improves the productivity of people and companies, that ensures that we have growth capacity in the medium term,” he asserted.

Keep in mind

Local governments executed a total of S/2,561 million, registering a budget advance of 13%, the highest since records have been recorded, although with a drop of 8% compared to what was invested in the first quarter of 2021, reported ComexPerú.
On average, the municipalities of Lima and Callao reached 22% progress; Tumbes, Áncash and Ica did not exceed 10% execution.