‘SA should brace itself tough economic realities’

Economist Owen Nkomo says South African citizens should brace themselves for tough economic realities when Finance Minister Tito Mboweni presents the emergency budget speech on Wednesday.

Nkomo says Mboweni has very few options to try and resuscitate the economy.

The supplementary budget aims to outline additional plans by government as part of dealing with the global coronavirus pandemic.

In the video below, SABC News’ Nompumelelo Siziba explains why this budget speech is important:

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Nkomo says the speech is also likely to include changes to the existing budget.

“So we do expect that the focus on the budget will be directed at efforts to make sure the economy has a chance of recovering. I doubt there will be any good news, he’s a man who is fighting with one hand behind his back. We think that there will be some sort of austerity measures to a level. Because we are trying to spend too much money, which we don’t have… We don’t want to be increasing our borrowing responsibility as a country,” explains Nkomo.

In the video below, BUSA speaks about some of its expectations:

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Source: SABC News (sabcnews.com)