Key takeaways from Mboweni’s address :
*The consolidated budget deficit will rise to R761.7 billion, or 15.7 per cent of GDP in 2020/21.
*SA will also miss its tax revenue target (included in the February Budget) by some R300 billion.
*Treasury is projecting that gross national debt will be close to R4 trillion, or 81.8 per cent of GDP, by the end of the fiscal year.
*Mboweni said that government would choose the more difficult “narrow path” to shrink the deficit and stabilise debt at 87.4 percent of GDP in 2023/24.
*Remaining passive, he said, would open the path to bankruptcy, and a sovereign debt crisis.
*Cabinet has adopted a target of a primary surplus by 2023/24.
*SA has approached international finance institutions to borrow $7 billion. Of this, SA has received $1 billion in funding from the New Development Bank.
*SA will start using zero-based budgeting in future in light of the “new realities” the country is facing.
*The minister did not provide an update in whether the government would consider further loans to SAA, saying this was the domain of the department of public enterprises.
*The state will put aside R100 billion to create jobs, part of a “multi-year, comprehensive response to our jobs emergency”.
