JOHANNESBURG - South Africa’s medium-term budget will be presented to lawmakers on Oct. 30, the National Treasury said.
“The Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) will be tabled on Wednesday, 30 October 2019 after the availability of all principals who need to attend the tabling was confirmed,” said the Treasury in a statement.
On Thursday, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni had said the budget, which covers fiscal planning for the coming three years, could be presented a day earlier than scheduled to accommodate President Cyril Ramaphosa’s travel plans.
Mboweni’s much-anticipated MTBPS will be watched with a keen eye by investors and Moody’s Rating Agency as he is expected to table a complete economic recovery plan.
Also expected is Mboweni’s announcement of Eskom’s and SAA turnaround plan, which includes the unbundling of the troubled power utility and the inclusion of private partners in rescuing the State-owned carrier.
Eskom’s debt of more than R450 billion has been cited as the single largest threat to the country’s fiscus.
Moody’s Ratings Agency, the only agency that still has South Africa’s sovereign credit rating above junk, recently assured that it was likely to maintain South Africa’s investment grading with a negative outlook in its next review on 1 November but highlighted Eskom’s unsustainable capital structure and called for urgency of turnaround plan.
Mboweni’s meeting with the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, economists and academics, and government officials, will be discussing the updated paper entitled “Towards a growth agenda for the South African economy,” that was published on the National Treasury in August.