THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said the overall fiscal deficit to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2016/17 is projected to be below the targeted figure by almost half.
The Breton Wood Institution said the
fiscal deficit to GDP expected to be 2.5 per cent of GDP, compared to
4.5 per cent in the budget.
The IMF Team led by Mauricio Villafuerte
was broadly satisfactory as preliminary data indicate that most targets
for end-December 2016 were met except one, tax revenue that was missed
by a small margin. Tanzania’s GDP growth has been robust, with some
fluctuations driven mostly by variations in the stance of macroeconomic
policies.
The IMF Team was concluding the 10-day
visit to Tanzania last week that the projection based on anticipating
financing constraints easing in the second half of the year.
“Thus, there was a small surplus of
about a 0.3 percent of GDP during the first half of the fiscal year…,”
Villafuerte said in the brief report. Revenue collections during the
2016/17 fiscal year have picked up over the previous year, although they
are likely to fall short of the ambitious target.
“The level of government spending is
likely to fall well short of budgeted levels because of tightly
controlled recurrent spending and delays in securing external
financing,” Villafuerte said.
The team held discussions with the
authorities on the sixth review under the Policy Support Instrument
(PSI) programme that was approved on July 2014.
“Liquidity conditions remain tight, but
are expected to ease in coming weeks, including through a decision to
lower the statutory minimum reserve requirement,” Villafuerte said.
The team further noted that for Tanzania
to meet its medium-term growth objectives would require a vibrant
private sector and that ample scope remained to improve the business
environment.
No comments :
Post a Comment