Sovereign debt crisis
ANDREW DUVENAGE: Mid-term budget offers little reason for optimism
Government has consistently failed to implement structural reforms which, despite being continually referenced, remain elusive, writes Andrew Duvenage.
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has presented the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) against the backdrop of growing national debt and an economy decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A sovereign debt crisis is when a country cannot afford to pay any of the interest or the capital on amounts that it has borrowed, with dire consequences for the economy.
The urgency of reining in the government’s spiralling debt was the overriding message from Mboweni’s special adjustment budget this week, and it was one he continued to hammer home.