HILARY JOFFE: The alarm over national debt is not misplaced
Revenue has done better than expected since February’s budget, but the world has done a lot worse
Treasury set the clock ticking on the medium-term budget this week, announcing that its officials would go into the traditional “closed period” on September 23 ahead of the budget on October 26. With just two months to go, economists and organised business folk are sounding the alarm very loudly about the national debt.
But at first glance it may not be clear why. Treasury figures for the first quarter of the fiscal year that started on April 1 show government revenues are again running far ahead of February’s budget estimates, with corporate income tax collections again shooting the lights out as they did last year as the commodities boom continues. For the first time, economists say, the figures show a small first-quarter fiscal surplus. They show too that the government is sitting on a cash pile of close to R400bn...
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