Now that a VAT increase has been ruled out, the finance minister must find another way to plug a R75bn gap or risk collapsing public services and investor confidence
Godongwana promises fiscal prudence in his new budget but the growth forecast may change
Budget approval hangs in the balance and resistance to it is set to play out in the legislature’s finance committees
Finance minister Enoch Godongwana forecast 1.8% growth over three years, coupled with a bigger deficit, as debt service costs crowd out fiscal space
Rodgers, the new finance MEC, said he would cut subsistence and travel by 25%. In the last financial year, under the ANC, R1 billion was spent on S&T
When he came in as president, he destroyed the old system but failed to build something new – and now Ruto is paying the price
The Kenyan government said it would reduce spending to compensate for the scrapped tax measures.
Earlier this year, the ratings agency warned that a significant increase in the government’s debt-to-GDP ratio could knock its credit rating
In this instalment of The Fiscal Cliff – a Mail & Guardian series on how South Africa’s budget has been shaped – Sarah Smit considers the intimate link between the country’s ultra-high unemployment rate and austerity
The minister underlined that in the wake of efforts to grow the economy, the government must respect budget constraint
The choice to adopt austerity is not about protecting the state against capture — nor is it about realising untapped growth
Ten years after its adoption, the government has failed to achieve the targets set out in the National Development Plan. Looming spending cuts will render the NDP even more futile
The ruling party’s economic transformation committee head, Mmamoloko Kubayi, said the treasury’s proposals were ‘unfortunate’, ‘illegal’ and a ‘tick-box exercise’
The proposal suggested the bloated cabinet be cut and departments trim their expenditure
Another round of spending cuts stand to shake the governing party’s already rickety foundations
Head of treasury’s budget office Edgar Sishi said fiscal consolidation will have to be extended by at least another two years
Mining windfall helped SA’s financial position, but lower revenues and additional spending will delay the end of fiscal consolidation
The finance minister’s commitment to toeing the line may send positive signals to ratings agencies, but at what cost?
However, the treasury still expects the country to achieve a main budget surplus from this year onwards
The ruling party has repeated its proposal to nationalise the central bank’s ownership and mandate, but says it must be done in a way that is conscious of costs
With the economy in crisis, worsened by load-shedding, the fiscus must be more responsive
Labour has been on the receiving end of a failing economy’s onslaught, giving a business-friendly government the upper hand
Like a household, new spending will be financed through tax increases or budget cuts
The Reserve Bank governor has cautioned against ‘reckless’ fiscal and monetary policies amid global shocks
Fiscal consolidation is drawing to a close as the public purse was boosted by commodities, but the treasury will probably continue exercising restraint
The minister’s medium-term budget policy statement had to balance the fiscal risk of state-owned entities and the threat their collapse posed for the economy
This is as a strike looms in the public sector after some unions have rejected the government’s offer of a 3% wage hike
The finance ministry confirmed that it is still mulling whether and how to replace the interim measure with a basic income grant
The state is set to achieve a primary budget surplus a year earlier than expected
Eskom, Transnet and the public sector wage bill will feature large in next week’s medium-term budget policy statement
Workers are in the throes of a cost of living crisis, which could force the government to fold on its hard line against more spending
Last month’s budget was positive about the trajectory of the economy but near-term growth projection are only slightly higher than during South Africa’s darkest years