Manila, Aug. 28 -- The national government's budget deficit narrowed in July this year as revenues grew faster than expenditures, the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) said.

In its latest cash operations report released Thursday, the BTr said the budget deficit went down by 34.42 percent to PHP18.9 billion from last year's PHP28.8 billion.

Revenue collections during the month rose 3.26 percent to PHP472.3 billion from PHP457.4 billion in July last year, on the back of the higher collections from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

BIR collections reached PHP335 billion, up by 4.8 percent, due to higher revenues from corporate income tax, personal income tax, tax on government securities, excise tax on tobac...