DRC to review 2020 budget due to coronavirus

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Prime Minister Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba met with the Presidents of Parliament on Monday. They compared the health situation, marked by the Covid-19, with macroeconomic indicators that had allowed the development of a budget of 11 billion dollars. The Prime Minister talks about the mismatch between crumbling revenues and public spending.

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With our correspondent in Kinshasa, Patient Ligodi

Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba explained that the macroeconomic framework on which the government had built the revenue and expenditure forecasts for fiscal year 2020 was upset by the pandemic. And the nature of the Congolese economy does not help cushion the shock.

“  We are an outgoing economy. This means that our exports and imports are more difficult today than yesterday. So that means, as a result, our revenues are also decreasing very quickly,  ” says the Prime Minister.

Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba insisted that it will now be necessary to adapt to the situation. And that very quickly: “  We must recognize that the budget which was voted, we will certainly have difficulties to realize it, because the receipts do not follow, whereas the expenses are always important, as planned.  "

An already unrealistic budget for the IMF

Long before the crisis of the new coronavirus, the International Monetary Fund already predicted that GDP growth would slow due to the decline in mining production. What is more, the financial institution estimated that the budget of nearly $ 11 billion was unrealistic. The IMF had asked the Congolese government to focus on raising revenue and setting spending priorities.

In recent weeks, civil society organizations have mainly advocated for the reduction of the lifestyle of the institutions.

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• Ground floor
• Coronavirus
• Economic crisis

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