Government spending on health and social infrastructure falls in Q1

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Government spending on health and social infrastructure falls in Q1

3:01 CAT | 31 May 2019

File photo: TVM

The allocation of financial resources to socio-economic sectors during the first three months of this year reveals that there was less spending on health and infrastructure compared to the same period of 2018.

The Mozambican government spent 8.9% less in the health sector in the first quarter of 2019 than in the same period last year: around 3.8 billion meticais, against 4.1 billion meticais in 2018, according to the budget execution report accessed by O País.

The same situation was observed in the infrastructure sector (the highlight being roads, with spending of around 1.3 billion meticais, against 2.6 billion in the first quarter of 2018), where state expenditure stood at 3.1 billion meticais between January and March 2019, down 26.2% on the same period of last year.

In terms of total state expenditure in the social and economic sectors, education absorbed a larger volume of resources allocated this year with 53%, followed by health and infrastructure with 13.7% and 11.2% %, respectively. Altogether, the government spent 27,359.7 million meticais in socio-economic sectors in the first quarter of 2019, corresponding to 16.1% of the annual budget.

Compared to the same period of 2018, economic and social sector expenditure grew by 0.6% in real terms, due to the influence of the transportation and communication sector, which grew by 54.5%, according to the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Overall, total state expenditure amounted to 60,280.6 million meticais, corresponding to 17.7% of the annual budget, with operating costs standing at 46,945.8 million meticais, investment at 7,077.4 million meticais and financial operations at 6,257,4 million meticais, corresponding to 23.9%, 6.9% and 15.1%, respectively of the annual state budget. Of this amount, staff costs amounted to 29,250.5 million meticais, corresponding to 28% of the annual budget, with wages and salaries amounting to 28.5% and other staff expenditure to 16.3%.

Compared with the same period last year, staff costs increased by 11.4% in real terms, with salaries and wages increasing by 11.7% and other staff expenses by 3.72%. The growth in staff expenditure is explained by the introduction of various administrative changes (new fixations, updates, promotions, progressions and career changes) in the second half of 2018, the impact of which is reflected in the current year’s salary figure.

Payments to the suppliers of goods and services to the state absorbed the sum of 3,869.9 million meticais, equivalent to 12.3% of the annual budget and a fall of 20.7% in real terms compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year.

By Edson Arante

Source: O País