The Philippine government is likely to post a narrow fiscal deficit this year because of the delayed approval of the 2019 national budget, Moody’s Investor Service said.

“We expect the fiscal deficit to narrow significantly to around 2 percent of GDP (gross domestic product) in 2019 before widening to 3.0 percent of GDP in 2020, largely reflecting the negative impact of the budgetary delay earlier this year amid continued revenue increases,” the global debt watcher said in a report released late last week.