By Simon Nare
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has warned of government’s ever rising debt, as he forecast GDP growth of 1.1% in the current financial year, while over the medium-term growth is estimated to average 1.8.%
Delivering his medium-term budget in the National Assembly on Wednesday, Godongwana revealed the forecasted growth for the current year was lower than predicted in February.
Godongwana warned that government debt has risen too fast and was too high. It was also rising faster than economic growth.
“We are anticipating that government debt will reach more than R6.05 trillion, or 75.5% of GDP in 2025/26. We know that our debt is unsustainable, because debt-service costs have become the largest component of our spending and it is rising faster than economic growth.
“Debt service costs will reach R388.9 billion in the current financial year,” he warned.
The minister explained that this simply meant that for every
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