Reporter THE National Government’s budget deficit ballooned to 7.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) last year from 3.4% in 2019, but slightly below the cap set by the economic team, as spending increased and revenues slumped amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In a speech at the virtual meeting of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) on Tuesday, Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said preliminary data showed last year’s budget deficit reached P1.36 trillion or equivalent to 7.5% of GDP, more than double the 3.4% deficit-to-GDP ratio in 2019. Last year’s fiscal gap surged to a fresh all-time high, or twice as much as the previous record of P660 billion in 2019.