South Africa

South Africa expects the economy to grow at a rate of 0.5% in 2019 – which is a downward revision from the 1.5% projected in the February budget.

The budget deficit is expected to widen to 6.2% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2020, National Treasury said on Wednesday.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni says going forward, any cash injection aimed at supporting the cash flow for embattled power utility Eskom will be in a form of loans, and not equity.

Headline inflation is expected to increase gradually in 2019 with the Reserve Bank maintaining its inflation targeting policy of below 6%, the National Treasury said on Wednesday.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has projected a R53 billion revenue collection shortfall for the current financial year.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni says there is a need to trim civil servant perks and stop wastages as the debt to GDP ratio is expected to rise to 71.3% in 2023.

The roll-out of the much-anticipated National Health Insurance will require an addition R33 billion annually from the 2025/26 financial year.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has outlined a raft of cost-cutting measures that will see government save billions of rands in the public sector wage bill.

The National Treasury has tabled before Parliament a litany of options the state has to consider if it is to improve efficiency and reduce wasteful expenditure.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and South African Revenue Service (SARS) will, respectively, receive an additional R1.3 billion and R1 billion over the next two years as government bolsters corruption fighting efforts and improve revenue collection.

Governance failures and poor operational performance at some state owned companies continue to pose a risk to the fiscus, National Treasury said on Wednesday.

Government has resolved to retain the user pay principle in the contentious Gauteng e-tolls matter.

National Treasury has set up a Financial Action Task Force in an effort to curb illicit cross‐border flows and tax evasion.

With 10 days of no load shedding, the probability of load shedding for the rest of this week is low, Eskom said on Wednesday.

South Africans are anticipating an update today on the economy’s health as Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is scheduled to table the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) in Parliament, this afternoon.