The 2021 Budget: Living on borrowed time

The 2021 Budget: Living on borrowed time

The latest report from the Centre For Risk Analysis (CRA), entitled ​Living On Borrowed Time assesses the macroeconomic trends and key policy risks emerging from the National Budget.

Publication description

In this month’s edition we unpack Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s 2021 National Budget and identify the risk of South Africa’s deteriorating fiscal position.  

Key takeaways:

  • The government expects economic growth of 3.3% for 2021, stabilising at 1.6% by 2023.
  • It expects to collect revenue of R1.52 trillion, or 28.4% of GDP in 2021/22.
  • Expenditure is expected to reach R2.02 trillion in 2021/22.
  • The government therefore expects a main budget balance of -R482.6 billion in 2021/22 or -9% of GDP.
  • The consolidated budget balance is -R500 billion or -9.3% of GDP.
  • The government expects a debt-to-GDP ratio of 81.9% in 2021/22, rising to 87.3% by 2023/24.
  • Debt service costs amount to R269.7 billion (17.7% of revenue and 13.3% of expenditure).
  • The budget deficit amounts to R1.4 billion being borrowed every day for the year 2021.