Government surpassed its half year expenditure target of ZWL$189.8 billion by ZWL$7.8 billion to reach ZWL$197.6 billion on employee compensation, non-financial assets, social benefits and subsidies, the Finance and Economic Development Minister, Mthuli Ncube has revealed.
Treasury-however still managed to record a modest half year surplus of ZWL$570 million sustained by strong revenue collection which managed to reach ZW$198.2 billion against a target of ZW$182.1 billion.
“Major expenditures were on Compensation of Employees at ZWL$80 billion against a target of ZWL$73.8 billion and Non-Financial Assets (capital budget) at ZWL$67.4 billion against a target of ZWL$58 billion (slide 26),” said the minister.
“Social benefits and subsidies stood at ZWL$14.5 billion and ZWL$2.9 billion, against the half year targets of ZWL$6.1 billion and ZWL$1.4 billion, respectively,”
“As a result, expenditure on Government programmes during the period under review was 41 percent of total budget against a half year target of 45 percent,” added the Minister.
During the period, government increased civil servants salaries by over a 100 percent cumulatively, had to increase social benefits due to inflation which despite slowing down to double-digit figures this July for the first time in over two years, still remains unsustainable for macro-economic planning and budgeting.
The minister however remained confident that going into the second half of 2021, the government will restrict its spending within budget targets to avoid a fiscal deficit.
“In the outlook to December 2021, budget expenditure target of ZWL$421.6 billion will be maintained as we try to contain expenditures, save for exigencies managed through reallocations, where necessary,” he said.
Government has been tying down its expenditure in recent years to avoid going into debts.
Currently, public domestic debt stands at ZWL$20.9 billion while external debt hovers around US$10.5 billion, representing 71.2 percent of GDP.
