MANILA - Dutch lender ING said the government's official growth forecast is at risk as spending growth weakens.

Robert Carnell, ING Bank chief economist in Asia said that May's P33.4 billion budget deficit puts the year-to-date deficit at P63.6 billion, or P11.5 billion narrower than a year ago.

He added that year-to-date revenue growth was 7.7 percent, while spending growth was just 6.0 percent during the period.

This despite the government's vow to ramp up spending to boost the economy.

Carnell added that if sustained for the rest of the year, this would produce a slightly smaller full-year budget deficit than last year's P353 billion, which was 2.45 percent of GDP.

ING also scaled back its forecast on the Bangko Sentral policy rate hikes this year from two 25 basis point hikes to just one 25bp hike in the fourth quarter.