South Africa ”stoically” resisted presenting a budget to drum up votes ahead of an election due next year, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday.
”There has been talk of electioneering … there is nothing in it. In fact, we have been stoically resistant of any electioneering budget,” he said on SAfm radio.
Manuel was speaking a day after he forecast a shift back to a budget deficit and lower economic growth while pledging to keep to South Africa’s ambitious spending plans to help cut poverty and weather a global slowdown.
Some investors are worried new leaders of the African National Congress (ANC) could pressure Manuel to stray from his conservative economic policies in favour of a more expansionary tack ahead of elections due next year.
But Manuel used a budget speech to reassure investors the government was not switching course, saying the move to a deficit did not signal a change of ”economic creed” and that inflation targeting, unpopular with the left, would stay.
Manuel also on Wednesday dismissed as ”overcooked” suggestions the government could nationalise industrial giants such as Sasol, and said he did not know why the rand had fallen since he delivered the budget review. — Reuters