Covid-19 response: Partners make another US$450 million available through September | Mozambique

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Covid-19 response: Partners make another US$450 million available through September | Mozambique

4:05 CAT | 05 Nov 2020

Photo: TVM

Cooperation partners have made more than US$450 million available for Mozambique’s Covid-19 Response Action Plan, in a move Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosário characterised as expressing the confidence that the world has in Mozambique.

Initial projections predicted an estimated four percent macroeconomic growth, but as the global financial situation evolved, the country lowered its GDP grow forecast to 0.8%, against 2.2% foreseen in the Economic and Social Plan approved in April this year.

In view of the slowdown in the national economy as a result of Covid-19, terrorism in Cabo Delgado and attacks by the Military Junta in the centre of the country, the government on Wednesday submitted its Proposed Review of the 2020 State Budget to parliament.

“It is the competence of the Assembly of the Republic to authorise by law any change in the maximum expenditure limit which has been approved by this Great House of the People. It happens that currently we have a set of factors that affect the structure and the limit of the public expenditure approved by this Great House of the People which are: The actions of response and mitigation of the effects of Covid-19; the need for additional resources for humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons caused by terrorism; and the reinforcement of the operational capacity of the Defence and Security Forces in the face of terrorist actions in Cabo Delgado and the armed attacks of the self-styled Renamo Military Junta,” the Mozambican prime minister said.

In accordance with the principle of budgetary balance, there can be no change in the expenditure limit without the sources of its funding being assured. The law establishes that it is only with the confirmation of the inflow of financial resources that it is possible to guarantee the realisation of the expenditure provided for in the State Budget.

In this regard, the Prime Minister stated that the disbursement commitments of the cooperation partners for the operationalisation of the Covid-19 Response Action Plan began to gain consistency in the second half of this year, with the total disbursement of an additional US$450 million until last September.

Carlos Agostinho do Rosário said that it was possible to predict with some confidence at this stage the level of expenditure to be carried out based on the support promised by the cooperation partners.

“The preparation of the present proposal for the revision of the State Budget was only possible from the moment that we started to have more consolidated information on the country’s socio-economic situation and the prospects for economic growth in face of the negative impacts of Covid-19, as well as the realization of disbursements of resources by the cooperation partners,” he said.

“Excellencies, the inflow of resources from development partners to finance various projects and specific initiatives to mitigate the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, expresses the confidence they have with our country,” Carlos Agostinho do Rosário emphasised.

The Covid-19 Response Action Plan is budgeted at a total of US$700 million.

Source: TVM