Namibia's finance minister, Calle Schlettwein, has cautioned that Government expenses should not be

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Namibia's finance minister Calle Schlettwein has cautioned that Government expenses should not be allowed to grow faster than revenue, and should be kept in check to enable economic recovery and sustainable growth. Schlettwein cautioned yesterday. Presenting his mid-year budget review statement in the National Assembly, Schlettwein said the government is still focused on achieving economic recovery and sustainable growth. He explained that the government has to date delivered important progress on the basis of which short-run and long-run actions must be anchored, such as narrowing the budget deficit from 8,1% to 4,1%, ring-fencing social sector expenses as well as reducing debt levels, but "more still needs to be done". To that end, he said in an environment where Namibia is faced with a general economic contraction with a prolonged recession affecting specific economic sectors such as construction, agriculture, wholesale and retail trade, about N$29,4 billion in revenue was collected for the first half of the year, which is about 50% of the budgeted revenue of N$58,4 billion for the 2019/20 financial year. On expenses, N$30,6 billion had been spent by the end of August 2019, is 52% of budgeted spending of N$66,6 billion. The minister said the current review echoes the ethos of doing more with less, hence the government decided to reallocate about N$1,18 billion within the budget.

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