Government expects to save EUR 101 million on expenses – Mozambique

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Government expects to save EUR 101 million on expenses – Mozambique

11:27 CAT | 06 Dec 2017

The Mozambican government yesterday approved measures to curb spending on high-ranking officials’ expenses, saving 7.2 billion meticais (around EUR 101 million) in 2018

“It’s a very big effort to contain spending,” Minister of Economy and Finance Adriano Maleiane told reporters at the end of the Council of Ministers’ weekly session. While public spending had accounted for 43 percent of gross domestic product in 2014, the figure for 2018 was projected to fall to 30.5 percent, he said.

Savings of 1.1 billion meticais (EUR 15.4 million euros) were anticipated from housing costs, and protocol cars purchased for state official would be limited to 1300 and 1500 cc models.

The government will stop buying cars for certain categories of officials altogether, substituting an allowance with capped fuel expenses instead, with a projected saving of 245 million meticais (EUR 3.4 million).

Also Read: Mozambique announces new measures to restrict gov’t expenditure

The minister also announced said that special allowances for state employees who had completed medium or university level education would also be scrapped.

“We came to the conclusion that various bonuses and subsidies could be rationalised,” Maleiane said, noting that the measures in question were intended to be permanent.

The Mozambican government has begun mobilising the country for an austerity effort following the economic and financial crisis that the country has faced since 2015, exacerbated by its debt crisis.

The proposed State Budget for 2018 provides for a total expenditure of around 303 billion meticais (about four billion Euros), an increase of 11 percent over 2017, and a budget deficit of 3.9 percent of total GDP, down from 6.1 percent in 2017.

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Source: Lusa