{"id":862433,"date":"2026-06-03T14:32:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T12:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=862433"},"modified":"2026-06-03T14:32:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T12:32:48","slug":"nice-surprise-for-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/862433\/nice-surprise-for-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Nice surprise for South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa posted a better-than-expected third consecutive primary budget surplus, underscoring the government\u2019s commitment to repairing public finances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The continent\u2019s largest economy recorded a surplus of 1.1% of gross domestic product in the year through March, surpassing the National Treasury\u2019s\u00a0February forecast<\/a>\u00a0of 0.9%, Director-General Duncan Pieterse said at a Citigroup Inc. conference on Tuesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A primary surplus excludes interest costs on public loans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government debt has now stabilised and is forecast to decline this year, and over the medium term, Pieterse said, marking a key milestone in South Africa\u2019s fiscal consolidation efforts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the February budget, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana forecast debt would peak at 78.9% of GDP before easing to 68.3% by 2033-34.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe primary surplus is forecast to grow,\u201d Pieterse said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, tax and non-tax revenue was higher than expected when the budget was announced, while spending was lower, including on debt-service costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This showed the government\u2019s ability to increase revenue and contain expenditure as needed to reach its targets, Pieterse said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main budget deficit ended the 2025-26 fiscal year at 4.3% of GDP, compared with a previous estimate of 4.6%, and is projected to fall to 3.1% by 2029, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stronger fiscal performance reflects Godongwana\u2019s determination to rein in public finances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since taking office in August 2021, he\u2019s largely resisted bailouts for debt-laden state companies unless they agreed to implement structural reforms, while maintaining tight control over government spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fiscal discipline may pave the way for credit-rating upgrades from Fitch Ratings, Moody\u2019s Ratings and S&P Global Ratings over the next year, Bank of America Corp. analysts Tatonga Rusike and Raghav Adlakha said in a note to clients on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moody\u2019s recently\u00a0revised<\/a>\u00a0South Africa\u2019s outlook to positive, while affirming its Ba2 rating, two notches below investment grade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

S&P maintained its BB rating, also two levels below investment grade, and retained a positive outlook after upgrading the country in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Treasury\u2019s twin objectives of stabilising and reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio while increasing the primary surplus \u2014 the de facto fiscal anchors in recent years \u2014 will be reinforced by the introduction of a formal rule, Pieterse said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis will provide a permanent, binding mechanism to lock in the fiscal gains achieved in recent years, strengthening policy credibility and further lowering our risk premium,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Ntando Thukwana for Bloomberg<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa posted a larger than expected third consecutive primary budget surplus, underscoring the government\u2019s commitment to repairing public finances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":704955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11121],"tags":[1629,20799,3796],"class_list":["post-862433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-budget","tag-godongwana","tag-national-treasury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862433","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\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=862433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":862434,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862433\/revisions\/862434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}