budget deficit - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

Egypt says land sale, IMF accord will ease budget problems

EGYPT has taken major steps towards lowering its budget deficit by selling real estate as well as agreeing on a support package with the International Monetary Fund, its finance minister said. Egypt's primary budget surplus will rise to above 3.5% in the fiscal year that will begin in July, Finance Minister Mohamed Maait told a news conference on Sunday. The primary surplus does not include interest payments, which in the seven months to end-January accounted for well over half of all expenditures and have kept Egypt deeply in deficit. The finance ministry last month forecast a primary general budget surplus…

Jan

2024

By TAREK AMARA

Tunisian cabinet approves bill allowing the central bank to finance the treasury

BUSINESS

THE Tunisian cabinet approved a controversial bill allowing the central bank to finance the treasury, in a move aimed at financing the budget deficit but which reinforced fears over the bank's independence. Last year, President Kais Saied said the law must be reviewed to allow the central bank to finance the budget directly by buying state bonds, a step bank governor Marouan Abassi has warned against. Economists believe the bill's approval by the cabinet enhances speculation the governor, who has headed the bank for six years, will leave the post next month at the end of his first term. Critics of the…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Kenya to cut fiscal deficit in 2021/22 to 7.5% of GDP

BUSINESS

KENYA will reduce its budget deficit to 7.5% of GDP in the 2021/22 (July-June) financial year, from 9.0% this fiscal year, the National Treasury said in a draft budget policy statement. Like other economies around the world, the East African nation has been battered by the impact of the coronavirus crisis, with prolonged lockdown measures curbing economic output and hitting government revenue. Economic growth is expected to rebound from the virus-induced slump, expanding by 6.4% in 2021 from an estimated 0.6% last year, Treasury said in the document seen by Reuters on Tuesday. Government’s revenue collection was now expected to…

Sep

2020

By The African Mirror

Kenya’s budget deficit likely to swell, finance minister says

BUSINESS

DUNCAN MIRIRI KENYA's budget deficit for this financial year could increase due to revenue shortfalls and coronavirus-related disruptions, the finance minister said on Tuesday. Ukur Yatani, who set the deficit at 7.5% of GDP when he presented the budget in June, did not say how far the gap was likely to expand, adding that they were developing a plan to cover it. "It might be just cutting on some expenditures, particularly the slow-moving projects, and… some state agencies are doing well so we are likely to get some substantial dividends," Yatani told Reuters. Revenue collection underperformed by 40 billion shillings…