Tanzania’s Magufuli cuts public spending, but is not countering the slowdown
Tanzania’s focus on more efficient expenditure, while good in the long run, has slowed expansion in one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies this year, according to the International Monetary Fund IMF). Even as President John Magufuli’s government reduced its recurrent expenditure "very sharply," affecting large sections of the economy that are traditionally reliant on public spending, it also failed to roll out capital projects fast enough to counter the slowdown, said Bhaswar Mukhopadhyay, the IMF’s country representative. Since assuming office in late 2015, Magufuli has fought to reduce government wastage and inefficiency by firing officials seen as corrupt or ineffective, and demanding greater accountability of state funds in East Africa’s second-biggest economy. "This particular government has also actually made the hard decisions to curb wasteful spending, try and re-orient spending toward capital spending," Mukhopadhyay said on Monday in an interview in Dar es Salaam. "In th...
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