Gov't debt costs to jump 80% on higher borrowings

Estimates from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development seen by BusinessWeek indicate that the figure of P2.9 billion in the 2022/23 financial year compares to interest payments of just P1.1 billion in the 2018/19 financial year and P990 million the year before.

Finance Minister, Thapelo Matsheka in his budget speech last month, revealed that government would largely tap the domestic market to fund the expected P6 billion deficit in the 2021/22 fiscal year. Parliamentarians approved the expansion of government’s debt limit from P15 billion to P30 billion in September last year, with Matsheka saying reserves contained in the Government Investment Account had become drained due to COVID-19 related expenditure.