The Arroyo administration is now hitting the breaks on government spending and will be increasing "controlled spending."

Presidential spokesman on economic matters Gary Olivar said on Friday that the government will now slowly tond down spending because of the widening budget deficit.

Olivar said President Arroyo has ordered agencies to exercise "increased controlled spending" after the budget deficit reached P118 billion in the first 4 months of the year, which is already half of the government's target of P199 billion for the full year.

Analysts expect the government to "overshoot" this target by as much as P70 billion.

Amid the global economic crisis that has hit the country's export, consumption, labor and other areas of the local economy, the government introduced a P330 billion stimulus package.

Economic managers had said they are frontloading the government's spending on the stimulus package's target areas--infrastructure, job generation, conditional dole-outs--to help cushion the local economy from the global wave of economic doom.

Oligar said that the government remains committed to "development spending" for as long as the global economy remains sluggish. -- ABS-CBN News