Finance Minister Mr Ahmed Shide has announced that the total government budget for the 2016 fiscal year presented to the House of Representatives has a deficit of 281 billion birr.
Minister of council approved a proposal for 801.65 billion birr for the 2016 fiscal year.
In the report submitted by the Minister of Finance to the House of Representatives, the government had a deficit of 281 billion birr in the 2016 budget.
The budget deficit for the year is about 50 billion birr from the 2015 fiscal year which is in completion.
The total budget of the 2015 fiscal year was 786 billion birr and Mr. Ahmed stated that the budget deficit is 231 billion birr while presenting the annual budget report.
The minister pointed out that the development support received from international partners has decreased significantly in the current financial year. “The plan that was supposed to be available in the form of budget support has not been fully available.” He said.
Following the increment of government spending in the 2015 fiscal year, the government was forced to cover the budget deficit from domestic loans.
A foreign loan was held as an alternative to cover the year’s budget deficit but the minister has nothing to say about the 7 billion birr foreign loan that was reserved as an alternative to the budget deficit.
At the same time, the minister pointed out that the budget deficit in 2016 will be filled with domestic and foreign loans.
According to the minister, the total budget deficit, of 242 billion birr will be covered by domestic loans, while the remaining 39 billion birr will be covered by foreign loans.
