The government may exceed its budget deficit goal this year of P250 billion due to spending related to typhoon reconstruction and despite successful sales of assets, the finance minister said Wednesday.

He said the government is likely to breach the target even after the proposed sale of its stake in two companies – Food Terminal Inc. and PNOC-Exploration Corp., which could together generate around P25 billion in revenue.

The government is looking to sell the 103-hectare Food Terminals Inc. commercial estate it had valued at around $279 million and a 40 percent stake, worth about P11 billion, in oiland-gas explorer PNOC-Exploration Corp (PNOC-EC) before the year ends.

"Even with the two big ticket items (up for privatization), because of Ondoy and Pepeng, we are likely to breach the P250 billion (deficit target),"

Teves told reporters. Teves had earlier painted a worstcase scenario of the budget deficit this year exceeding P300 billion.

He said the only way to keep the revenue-spending gap from exceeding P250 billion is to sell the government's 24% stake in food and beverage conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SM).

Ownership of the San Miguel stake, worth around P50 billion, is still pending in court.

''Even with the PNOC-EC and FTI sale, because of Typhoon Ondoy and Pepeng, we will likely breach the target,'' Finance Secretary Margarito Teves told reporters.

Despite the wider-than-expected budget deficit, the government would likely sell Samurai bonds to plug its budget deficit early next year, said Rosalia de Leon, head of the international finance group at the Finance department. Manila previously said it wanted to sell the yen bonds before the year ends.