Opposition parties unimpressed by Mboweni’s maiden policy statement
Opposition parties say they are not impressed with Finance Minister Tito Mboweni's maiden medium-term budget policy statement. Mboweni almost halved the National Treasury’s growth forecast, while predicting a steady rise in debt. DA shadow finance minister David Maynier said the policy statement showed that the "new path" of economic growth, employment creation and transformation had failed SA. The policy statement revealed a "full-scale budget blowout", with stagnant economic growth, lower-than-expected revenue, higher-than-expected expenditure and bail-outs of state-owned enterprises, he said. Compared with the main 2018 budget there was significant "fiscal slippage" with the fiscal deficit increasing by R22bn in 2018/2019, R33bn in 2019/2020 and R41bn in 2020/2021, he said. The national debt would increase by R19bn in 2018/2019, R55bn in 2019/2020 and R103bn in 2020/2021. National debt would stabilise only years later, at 56.5% of GDP in 2025/2026.
Maynier said this meant t...
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