Emergency Budget : SA debt levels to surge, but Tito Mboweni vows to ‘close the mouth of the hippopotamus’

  • 📰 dailymaverick
  • ⏱ Reading Time:
  • 32 sec. here
  • 2 min. at publisher
  • 📊 Quality Score:
  • News: 16%
  • Publisher: 84%

Business Business Headlines News

Business Business Latest News,Business Business Headlines

South Africa’s debt levels will surge during 2020 as the economy contracts over 7% in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, said Finance Minister Tito Mboweni in his supplemental Budget speech on Wednesday, 24 June. But he vowed to avoid a sovereign debt crisis, which he pointedly warned was looming on the horizon.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni looked sombre, even ashen, as he stood before the podium on live TV waiting for apparent technical glitches to get sorted just before he delivered his emergency Budget speech. Small wonder, given its contents.

“Our early projection is that gross national debt will be close to R4-trillion, or 81.8% of GDP by the end of this fiscal year. This is compared to an estimate of R3.56-trillion or 65.6% of GDP projected in February 2020,” Mboweni said. Most of this surge stems from the revenue shortfall and massive payouts from the Unemployment Insurance Fund. Gross revenue collection for the first two months of the fiscal year was already R-35.3-billion behind target.

“Government will narrow the deficit and stabilise debt at 87.4% of GDP in 2023/24. Cabinet has also adopted a target of a primary surplus by 2023/24,” he added.

 

Thank you for your comment. Your comment will be published after being reviewed.
Please try again later.
We have summarized this news so that you can read it quickly. If you are interested in the news, you can read the full text here. Read more:

 /  🏆 3. in BUSİNESS

Business Business Latest News, Business Business Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

WATCH LIVE | Finance minister Tito Mboweni delivers supplementary budget speechFinance minister Tito Mboweni is expected to deliver the supplementary budget speech on Wednesday, after the government’s announcement that it would spend R500bn to support the economy during the Covid-19 pandemic
Source: TimesLIVE - 🏆 28. / 59 Read more »

WATCH LIVE: Tito Mboweni delivers supplementary budgetThe finance minister has said SA needs to seriously consider a zero-based budgeting system
Source: BDliveSA - 🏆 12. / 63 Read more »

Seven key points from Tito Mboweni's 'emergency' Covid-19 budgetFinance minister Tito Mboweni laid out the full extent of the damage wrought by the Covid-19 crisis on the state’s already weak finances in his supplementary budget speech on Wednesday.
Source: TimesLIVE - 🏆 28. / 59 Read more »