medium term budget policy statement

Finance Minister Nene says cost containment measures implemented in 2013 have led to a drop in state consumption, and the Treasury has proposed a rise in spending in the long term to sustain debt levels in rough economic times, including a R200-million investment in energy.

The budget will be a balancing act. Reining in spending and raising taxes will usher in a few years of pain – not very heavy pain, but unavoidable pain – and the finance minister will need to find a way to spread it among as many groups as possible without causing anger or resentment.

South Africa's biggest employer - the government - is committed to ensuring that the growing public sector wage bill does not threaten the country's expenditure ceiling, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said in presenting his 2013 medium term budget policy statement to Parliament.