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National Treasury <http://www.treasury.gov.za/> , 22 October 2014 Minister of Finance Mr Nhlanhla Nene 2014 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement Honourable Speaker Mister President Deputy President Cabinet Colleagues and Deputy Ministers Governor and Governor-Designate of the Reserve Bank MECs of Finance Honourable Members Fellow South Africans, It is my privilege to present the 2014 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement and the Adjustments Appropriation Bill, the Division of Revenue Amendment Bill, all for 2014/15, and this year's Revenue Laws Amendment Bills. Mister President, we are calling upon Parliament to consider our budget proposals at a difficult time. In many countries, growth has slowed and the economic outlook is uncertain. Across the world, tough questions are being asked about how to generate growth, and how to reduce inequality. Governments everywhere face difficult choices because the gap between what is required and what can be afforded is very wide. And so we have to be steadfast in our resolve to do more, together, with less. Honourable Speaker, When we tabled the 2014 Budget in February, we expected the economy to grow by 2.7 per cent this year. The revised estimate is 1.4 per cent. The Treasury projects that growth will reach 3 per cent in 2017. This downward revision is partly because of a weak global environment, including the slowdown in Europe, China and other emerging economies. But it also reflects obstacles to our own development: energy constraints, labour market disruptions, skills shortages, administrative shortcomings and difficulties in our industrial transformation. We have achieved much over the past twenty years: we have expanded education and health care, broadened economic participation and extended income support to the most vulnerable. But we are not making enough progress in raising incomes or reducing poverty. Far too many people are unemployed, which deepens inequality and heightens vulnerability. We import considerably more than we export. As a result of slow growth, tax revenue is below our budget projection. Government's debt continues to rise as a percentage of GDP. Increased debt is not in itself a bad thing, if it finances investment in future productive capacity. But we are not investing enough. And our expenditure on public services achieves less than it should. And so, Honourable Speaker, the budget framework we table today is focused on restoring balance to the nation's finances, bolstering investment, and achieving better value for money in public expenditure. We want to improve our export performance and shift away from consumption-led, debt-reliant expansion. These changes are fundamental to our economic transformation, because they are the foundations on which our social progress and human development goals will be achieved. National Development Plan Our National Development Plan is about both growth and redistribution - expanding output and incomes and building a more inclusive and more equal society. As emphasised by President Zuma in opening the fifth Parliament, we need economic growth of around five per cent a year to decisively reduce unemployment and poverty, and to transform our social and economic order. There are many aspects to this transformation challenge. Continued at: http://www.gov.za/speech-minister-finance-mr-nhlanhla-nene-2014-medium-term- budget-policy-statement -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
