2016 budget: ESP miscarriages

The country will, until something major happens, be stuck with high levels of poverty, unemployment and underemployment and the gap between the rich and the poor will remain wide. Lack of access to economic and business opportunities and lack of access to basic services such as sanitation, water and electricity and education and health will continue unabated with profound effects on Batswana.

The minister has told Batswana that for 2015 economic growth was at 1% and has projected over 4% growth for 2016/2017. Revenues are expected to be P48.4 billion in 2016 against expenditure of P 54.44 billion. Consequently there’s a budget deficit of P6 billion to be financed with domestic and foreign borrowing and drawing from government savings. The minister is clear that P14 billion of the P54 billion proposed expenditure is allocated for development projects of which P1.3 billion will be under Economic Stimulus Programmes (ESP).