For the first two quarters of 2018, South Africa has experienced negative growth, implying a technical recession with -2.6% and -.7% for the first and second quarter respectively. The excise duty on luxury goods is raised from 7% to 9%. The consolidated Budget deficit for 2017/18 was 4.3%. Government will be reviewing all of its open-ended, “evergreen” contracts to open up opportunities for SMMEs and black owned companies to participate; and next week all departments will be instructed to pay suppliers on time “or be charged with financial misconduct.”, South Africa’s Budget remains one of the most transparent on earth and was ranked joint first (with New Zealand) in the, Zondo: ‘Do you agree that former Transnet…, Sad SAs speak: The ANC leaves us no choice… we…, Grounded SA airline pilots: is it time to take off…, How to rescue your retirement – Magnus Heystek, © 2020 BizNews, Inc. | The Rational Perspective, Department of Rural Development and Land Reform. function loadDoc() {var xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest(); xhttp.onreadystatechange = function() { if (this.readyState == 4 && this.status == 200) { document.getElementById("pressoffice").innerHTML = this.responseText; }}; xhttp.open("GET", "https://mg.co.za/scripts/rss/pressofficeServer.php?menu=false&items=5&feed=http://pressoffice.mg.co.za/feed/rss2.php", true); xhttp.send();} loadDoc(); For all the latest information and advice from the Department of Health relating to Covid-19, please visit sacoronavirus.co.za. It allows API clients to download millions of rows of historical data, to query our real-time economic calendar, subscribe to updates and receive quotes for currencies, commodities, stocks and bonds. Offshore allocation limits for institutional investors are increased by five percentage points across all categories. Spending on social protection will increase from R193.4-billion in 2018-2019 to R223.9-billion by 2020-2021, growing by an average of 7.9% annually. 1951-2018 Data | 2019-2020 Forecast | Historical. Like Donald Trump in Davos, Gigaba’s address was tightly scripted – this speech is all business. A total of R3bn will have been collected by end March from over 2 000 applicants for off-shore wealth amnesty through the. The government will have to find ways of closing or reducing the revenue gap that will occur as a result of this decision or to reduce spending in its programmes. For example, over the period of about 10 years from 2008 to the second quarter of 2018 economic growth has declined, save for pockets of insignificant growth not exceeding 3%. An allocation of R6bn has been set aside for provincial and local government to assit with drought relief. In light of these pressures, the fiscal consolidation exercise being implemented by the government has focused on reducing funding for some of its infrastructure programmes such as housing and others and has maintained or increased social grants. The social expenditure of 4% of its gross domestic product (GDP) is on a par with Ukraine, below Malawi and Ethiopia (about 4.5%) and higher than Jamaica (below 1%), Poland (just over 1%) and Argentina (1.5%). The best local and international journalism, handpicked and in your inbox every weekday, The central bank estimates that gross domestic product (GDP) to contract by 8.2% in 2020, Construction of an emergency Covid-19 hospital is running months behind deadline, promising The finmin welcomed back Old Mutual, which is shifting its primary stock exchange listing from London to Johannesburg. Overall government spending will increase from R1.56 trn to R1.67trn in the year ahead. These are unprecedented times, and the role of media to tell and record the story of South Africa as it develops is more important than ever. A new age has truly dawned. The Mail & Guardian is a proud news publisher with roots stretching back 35 years, and we’ve survived right from day one thanks to the support of readers who value fiercely independent journalism that is beholden to no-one. It is projected to rise at a real rate of 2.1% in the next three years. The government’s fiscal interventions such as programmes aimed at the creation of employment remain ineffective in making significant improvements. This will raise an additional R1bn for the fiscus. Military Expenditure in South Africa decreased to 3449 USD Million in 2018 from 3639 USD Million in 2017. A total of R1.2.bn in new revenue will be raised through a higher fuel tax. Listen to the story of Cyril Ramaphosa's rise to presidential power, narrated by our very own Alec Hogg. It has increased from 26.7% in the first quarter of 2018 to 27.2% in the second quarter. The Trading Economics Application Programming Interface (API) provides direct access to our data. Online sales to South Africans by foreign businesses will in future be liable to VAT. – Alec Hogg. South African Actuarial Journal, 14, 73-99. But increasing infrastructure investment will contribute to economic growth and create employment. Overall government spending will increase from R1.56 trn to R1.67trn in the year ahead. Post-2011, economic growth never reached 3%. Trading Economics members can view, download and compare data from nearly 200 countries, including more than 20 million economic indicators, exchange rates, government bond yields, stock indexes and commodity prices. The percentage of households that benefit from social grant programmes has also increased;in 2003 the estimated percentage of households receiving social grants was 12.7% and this has increased to more than 30%. An equitable tax policy would kick this back through adjusting the bands. Consequently, the 2017 medium-term budget policy statement estimated that government revenue would experience a revenue shortfall of R50.8-billion for 2017-2018. As heartening, there are only two oblique mentions to Radical Economic Transformation – one in reference to “deconcentrating the economy” through greater competition, and the other relating to the creation of opportunities for black agricultural producers. Here’s the executive summary. Therefore if the government wants to increase its revenue, increasing taxes is one of its major instruments. The social grants and security system is crucial to enhancing the social well-being of South Africans. The text comes from a different universe to the flowery waffle Zuma-appointed finance minister Malusi Gigaba indulged in during his October mini-Budget address. Doing so has contributed to slow economic growth because social grant spending is less growth-enabling compared with infrastructure investment. Government Spending refers to public expenditure on goods and services and is a major component of the GDP. R36 billion in 2018/19, enabling government to narrow the revenue gap. Education took up the lion’s share. Second, unemployment remains high. Since the 2008-2009 global and financial crisis, the country has failed to achieve pre-crisis economic growth rates of 4% to 5%.