{"id":305846,"date":"2019-03-21T09:05:54","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T07:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=305846"},"modified":"2019-03-20T16:06:05","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T14:06:05","slug":"this-map-shows-the-state-of-south-africas-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/305846\/this-map-shows-the-state-of-south-africas-debt\/","title":{"rendered":"This map shows the state of South Africa’s debt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stats SA has published a new report looking at how government spending has changed over 13 years, and focusing on how much the country pays to service its debt.<\/p>\n

If state expenditure is taken as a measure of better times, there was a three-year period (2005\/6 to 2008\/9) when government1 spent less than it earned, enjoying a surplus over that period, the organisation said.<\/p>\n

However, it noted that this quickly shriveled under the strain of various factors – including the 2008\u20132009 global financial crisis.<\/p>\n

“The economy floundered in 2008\/09, sliding into recession for three consecutive quarters. Government revenue fell in 2009\/10, mainly underpinned by a fall in tax collected from businesses,” Stats SA said.<\/p>\n

“Revenue bounced back the following year, but not enough to lift government out of the red. Since 2007\/08, government has consistently spent more than it earns.<\/p>\n

“The deficit in 2016\/17, for example, amounted to R156 billion,” it said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Stats SA, a national budget deficit is not uncommon globally and should not automatically be seen in a negative light.<\/p>\n

Countries generally borrow money to cover fiscal deficits so that they can provide services to their citizens, it said.<\/p>\n

“South Africa\u2019s gross loan debt stood at R2.2 trillion in 2016\/17, according to the National Treasury. This translates to about R40,000 per person living in the country.<\/p>\n

“Servicing this level of debt can be expensive. Interest payments accounted for 9.2% (or R146 billion) of general government expenditure (R1.58 trillion) in 2016\/17,” it said.<\/p>\n

In other words, for every R100 of total spending, R9,20 was used to pay interest on debt.<\/p>\n

“This is more than what was spent on the hospital (R105 billion), tertiary education (R77 billion) and housing (R69 billion) functions during that period,” Stats SA said.<\/p>\n

National Treasury expects this figure to rise, reaching 13% of total expenditure in 2021\/22, Stats SA said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

South Africa devoted a larger proportion of its budget to paying interest than other countries such as Russia and China, according to data from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).<\/p>\n

Of the 109 countries for which data are available, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Jamaica and Brazil devoted the highest proportion of their respective budgets to interest payments in 2016.<\/p>\n

Zambia was ranked in 5th place, an indication of the country\u2019s rapidly expanding debt burden. South Africa was ranked in 30th position.<\/p>\n

South Africa has a higher interest payment burden than some of its neighbours. Namibia, Botswana and Lesotho all contribute proportionally smaller chunks of their budgets to service debt.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: This is who voters think would do a better job than the ANC right now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stats SA has published a new report looking at how government spending has changed over 13 years, and focusing on how much the country pays to service its debt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":303724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26,1809],"class_list":["post-305846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305846"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306428,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305846\/revisions\/306428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}