Botswana to cut spending on cars, travel as diamond slump persists
Botswana plans to reduce spending on new vehicles and travel for government officials and may delay some capital projects to deal with a slump in diamond revenues, according to its finance minister.
“We have to seriously reduce the pace of spending, and we are looking at areas such as procurement of vehicles, computers, workshops and travel that is funded by government,” Finance Minister Peggy Serame told lawmakers on Monday.
Budget revenue in first quarter of the fiscal year starting April was about 28% lower than the targeted 23.4-billion pula due to lower diamond revenues and sales, Serame said. “If things do not improve, we will also have to look at delaying some projects that we had planned,” she said.
Botswana is the world’s largest producer of rough diamonds by value with the revenues making up the bulk of the southern African country’s budget receipts. Global diamond sales have been impacted by too much supply, poor demand from the crucial Chinese market, pressures from lab grown gems and inflation-hit consumers.
The budget pressures come as the nation prepares to hold elections in October in which President Mokgweetsi Masisi is seeking reelection.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation