Eswatini aims 10.2% growth by 2028

MBABANE – The Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, says it is possible for the country to reach a growth rate of 10.2 per cent by the end of the 12th Parliament term in 2028.

When delivering his budget speech on Monday, Rijkenberg said the country could be the leader on the continent regarding gross domestic product (GDP) growth and this, in turn, would deal with unemployment and poverty.

The minister highlighted that the current growth was around five per cent, but if the country would use a conservative three per cent as a baseline and then add the possible growth percentages of the projects that they were doing and planning to do, then one would notice that it was possible for the country to reach a growth rate of 10.2 per cent by the end of our term in 2028.

The budget deficit for the financial year 2024/25 is projected at 1.96 per cent of GDP, equal to E1.84 billion.

He added that government revenue, excluding grants in the 2024/25 fiscal year, was projected to reach E26.99 billion, which is 28.8 per cent of GDP, an increase of 1.1 per cent in 2023/24.

Increased

He noted that of this, Southern African Customs Union (SACU) receipts increased from E11.75 billion in 2023/24 to E13.07 billion in 2024/25. He said non-SACU revenue increased from E13.16 billion to E15.41 billion, a growth of 17 per cent.

The minister stated that total income taxes were projected to increase by close to 12.4 per cent from an estimate of E7.20 billion in 2023/24 to about E8.09 billion in 2024/25. He said this was because of higher expected growth and employment in 2024/25 compared to 2023/24. He said out of this, corporate income taxes were expected to grow from E1.78 billion the previous year to E2.01 billion in 2024/25.

Similarly, personal income taxes are expected to grow by 12.6 per cent to E5.26 billion.

Taxes on goods and services excluding SACU receipts are expected to increase by 11.5 per cent to E6.57 billion. VAT is expected to grow by 13.4 per cent to E5.09 billion. Fuel taxes are expected to grow by 5.4 per cent amounting to E1.39 billion. The levy on imported vehicles is projected to grow around 8.3 per cent, from E12 million to E13 million.

Government’s fiscal strategy is focused on delivering the National Strategic Plan, which aims to stabilise and grow the economy, balance the budget, build infrastructure and improve service delivery.

Payments

Total expenditure for the financial year 2024/25 is expected to be E29.42 billion. This includes public debt payments of E4.5 billion. The appropriated recurrent expenditure is set to be E20.24 billion, an increase of 9.3 per cent compared to previous year.

Total budget allocation to capital programmes amounts to E6.34 billion, increased at last year’s budget allocation. The total expenditure for 2024/25 reviews for an increase of 11.3 per cent compared to last year’s budget of E26.4 billion.