Budget 2009

Every year the Minister responsible for finance presents budget proposals to Parliament which are later debated and subsequently approved before the start of the next financial year. In this regard, the 2009/10 Budget was presented to the National Assembly on 2nd February 2009. The total expenditure and net lending for 2009/10 is P37.79 billion, which is an increase of 5.3 percent over the revised estimates of the 2008/09 financial year. Out of this budget, total development budget is P10.56 billion while recurrent spending is P27.36. With total revenues and grants estimated at P24.39 billion, the overall budget balance is a deficit of P13.4 billion.

More details on the 2009 Budget are available on the government website: www.gov.bw and www.finance.gov.bw

In his speech, the Minister of Finance and Development Planning indicated that the preparation of the budget for the 2009/10 financial year was made very difficult by the rapidly evolving international financial and economic crisis. He also noted that there may be need for reprioritisation and cut back on Government expenditure as the impact of the crisis becomes clearer. In April 2009, a number of initiatives were introduced to reduce expenditure in response to declining expected revenue. Development spending was reduced by 5 percent, while recurrent expenditure was cut by 7 percent.