The Government of Filipe Jacinto Nyusi plans to increase the Internal Public Debt during the 2018 fiscal year by at least 84.2 billion meticais to finance its State Budget which is expected to continue without support from the Cooperation Partners for the third consecutive year, Verdade’s Adérito Caldeira reports.
The largest beneficiaries of this debt, which closed the year 2017 at 100.5 billion meticais, will be the three major commercial banks that buying the Internal Public Debt have increased their profits by tens of billions of meticais.
The intransigence of the Frelimo party’s executive in filling in the gaps identified by the International Monetary Fund in the Kroll Report on Illegal Debts of Proindicus, EMATUM and MAM is expected to extend external financing to the State Budget for a further year – which in 2018 has projected expenses amounting to MZN 302.9 billion, which, taking into account the revenue forecast, results in a budget deficit of just over MFA 84 billion.
To finance this deficit the Nyuzi-led government will be hiring more Internal Public Debt through the issuance of Treasury Bills, Treasury Bonds and debt with the Banco de Moçambique.
According to the Budget Execution Report for the first quarter of this fiscal year, the Executive is authorized to issue Treasury Bills up to 65 billion meticals and up to 19.2 billion meticais in Treasury Bonds.
It is recalled that on 16 December the Minister of Economy and Finance, Adriano Maleiane, confirmed the information that has been made public by the central bank that by December 31, 2017 the Internal Public Debt had exceeded 100.5 billion meticais. When Filipe Nyusi became the 4th President of Mozambique Internal Public Debt was only 69.2 million meticais, which since then has increased by more than 100 thousand percent.
Just to cope with the costs of the past Internal Public Debt, the Government will have to pay 19.7 billion meticais this year, registered in its State Budget, an amount that exceeds twice every budget foreseen for Water and Public Works and is six times higher than the allocation for all Social Protection Programs in Mozambique in 2018.
The official document released by the Ministry of Economy and Finance reveals that only in the first three months of this year, Treasury Bills were issued in the amount of 3.5 billion meticals, and Treasury Bonds amounting to 3.1 billion meticais , in the same period.
Through this policy option of internal public debt, the Government continues to make unfair competition to the productive sector of the economy in access to the Mozambican financial sector as has warned the economist Fernanda Massarongo Chivulele.
Investigations by @Verdade revealed that in 2017 alone the financial margin of Millenium Bim and Standard Bank exceeded 20 billion meticais, by 2016 only those two commercial banks had invoiced 14.3 billion meticais.
Source: allAfrica