Mozambique: State revenue finally exceeds expenditure – after Q3 | Carta

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Mozambique: State revenue finally exceeds expenditure – after Q3 | Carta

9:19 CAT | 29 Oct 2021

File photo: Lusa

Finally, state revenues has exceeded Mozambique’s always-extravagant public expenditure, Carta de Moçambique reports. After spending more than revenue in the first half of the year, the government in the last three months managed to collect revenue equivalent to seven times what it spent in the same period.

The 2021 Budget Execution Report for the first nine months of the year, shared on Wednesday at the end of the 37th Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers, indicates that, from January to September, the collection of State Revenue was 198,067.2 million meticais, which corresponds to 74.6% of the annual target and represents a growth of 19.5% compared to the same period in 2020, in which 167,798.1 million meticais were collected.

Expenditure in the first nine months of 2021, the Council of Ministers press release says, was 174,918.3 million meticais, corresponding to 71.9% of the State Budget planned for 2021 which represents an increase of 3% compared to the same period in 2020, when it totalled 161,963.1 million meticais.

After analysing the data, it appears that the revenue surpassed expenditure by 23,148.9 million meticais. The data are still more astonishing when compared to the Budget Execution Report for the first half of 2021. Up until June 2021, the government had collected 127,421.7 million meticais, against 165,852.9 million spent in the same period (January to June 2021), representing a deficit of 38,431.2 million meticais.

Calculations therefore lead to the conclusion that, from July to September, the country managed to collect 70,645.5 million meticais, but spent only 9,065.4 million meticais. That is, it managed to collect seven times more than it spent. Truly surreal.

The document does not put forward the reasons for this this ‘turnaround’ in Mozambican finances. It only mentions that, despite adverse factors, there was domestic macroeconomic stability, characterised by an increase in Net International Reserves to six months coverage, with inflation stable at 4.86%, below the 5% forecast for 2021.

Regarding the degree of compliance with the Economic and Social Plan (PES), the government reports that, of the 428 indicators of 2021 programmed up to the 3rd Quarter, 49% (208) reached the target, 24% (102) partially reached and 28% (118) did not meet third quarter goals.

By Abílio Bata

Source: Carta de Moçambique