IT WILL GET WORSE - MARTIN

MBABANE – Finance Minister Martin Dlamini has warned that the country might face serious financial difficulties in the next few years.

He said this when he delivered the budget in Parliament on Friday.

"Total revenue, including grants for 2015/16, is estimated at E14.6 billion compared with an estimated E14.8 billion in 2014/15," said the minister.

"In GDP terms, this is a drop of three percentage points. SACU receipts have fallen from E7.4 billion in 2014/15 to E6.9 billion in 2015/16, a reduction of around E560 million. SACU receipts are again expected to decline further in 2016/17, as Swaziland will be required to effect a sizeable repayment during 2016/17, as indicated by the SACU Secretariat. External grants will amount to E270 million, a reduction from last year, as one-off European Union grants for agricultural developments fall.

He told MPs that expenditure was estimated at E15.9 billion, including payments for public debt and ‘other statutory obligations.’ These, he said, amount to E1 billion.

"Total expenditure for 2015/16 thus represents an additional E646 million above the appropriated level for 2014/15," he said.

"The estimated budget deficit of E1.3 billion, will be financed by a mixture of external loans to projects, of around E450 million net, and additional domestic borrowing of around E1 billion. This is a sustainable budget in difficult circumstances. A variety of revenue and expenditure measures have led us to a responsible budget for 2015/16, which prepares us for a difficult year in 2016/17." However, in concluding his speech, Dlamini once again reiterated what he had said about a tough economic outlook.

"There is a higher ambition than merely to stand superior in the world," he said.

"It is to step down and lift mankind a little higher than where they are. This is a tough budget. However, it has tried to focus our meagre resources towards those areas that will lift up Swazis a little higher than where they are currently."

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