The Deputy Planning and Development Minister, Victor Bernardo, told reporters the government is proposing a budget of 88 billion meticais (3.5 billion US dollars) budget, of which 37.1 billion meticais are earmarked for running costs, 40.5 billion will be for capital expenditure, and 10.5 billion for other financial operations.
This budget is an increase of 24 per cent on the 2007 budget of 70.9 billion meticais.
The government pledges to continue decentralising the budget down to district level. The budget "will continue administrative and financial decentralisation, expressed in decentralising budgetary planning, programming and management, and in structuring local state bodies, in order to turn the districts into true engines of the country's economic and social development".
As for the Social and Economic Plan, the government has set a target of around seven per cent for economic growth, which is identical to the target for this year. The plan also aims to hold the annual inflation rate for 2008 to 5.7 per cent (slightly lower than this year's target of six per cent).
The government's target for commodity exports in 2008 is 2.632 billion dollars, which is an increase of two per cent, while it hopes to reach a level of net international reserves sufficient to cover 4.2 months worth of imports of goods and services.
The government resolution on the plan also speaks of "continuing to create the conditions that make investment in Mozambique attractive, but while safeguarding correct management of the environment".
The government also announced that it is submitting to the Assembly a law to revise the 2007 budget. This is because the government has suddenly found itself with more money than it expected, since collection of taxes and other domestic sources of revenue between January and August exceeded the target by 4.1 per cent.
SOURCE: AIM
