{"id":61468,"date":"2024-02-21T17:07:57","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T17:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt"},"modified":"2024-02-21T18:28:31","modified_gmt":"2024-02-21T18:28:31","slug":"government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt","title":{"rendered":"Government to tap into special account to reduce debt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The National Treasury plans to draw down from a special R500bn account for the first time to reduce debt and associated servicing costs over the next three years, according to the 2024 budget.<\/p>\n

Tabling his 2024 budget speech on Wednesday, finance minister Enoch Godongwana said government would draw down on the Gold and Foreign Exchange Contingency Reserve Account (GFECRA), managed by the South Africa Reserve Bank, which has accumulated reserves of more than R500bn as result of rand depreciation over the past 12 months.The GFECRA account captures profits and losses on foreign currency reserve transactions.<\/p>\n

An amount of R250bn will be drawn from the account, but Treasury will only access R150bn, with the remaining R100bn going back to the Reserve Bank to ensure it has sufficient buffers to absorb swings in the exchange rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will draw down R150bn of the GFECRA balance once we have ensured sufficient buffers are available to absorb exchange rate swings and the solvency of the Reserve Bank is not compromised.\u201d<\/p>\n

The budget review said the draw down will be formalised through legislation which would be tabled with the budget on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The government will use the funds to reduce borrowing and consequently the growth in debt service costs, the budget review said.<\/p>\n

Godongwana tabled the 2024 budget speech in parliament in Cape Town.<\/p>\n

Addressing reporters during a briefing before the speech, Reserve Bank governor Lesetja Kganyago said the full amount to be drawn from the GFECRA would be R250bn, of which R100bn would cover the administrative cost of covering the drawdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are transferring R250bn to the Treasury. But once you have transferred R250bn to the Treasury, the Treasury will spend R150bn,\u201d Kganyago said.<\/p>\n

The budget review said the GFECRA funds came in hand over the past year as government made adjustments due to lower-than-expected revenue, new spending pressures and R206bn removed from department baselines as well as provisional allocations.<\/p>\n

\u201cSubsequent improvements in revenue and reduced debt service costs associated with the expected GFECRA distribution have made it possible to reverse some of the reductions,\u201d the review said.<\/p>\n

It said the last settlement of balances in this account was reached in 2003 to the value of R28bn in the Reserve Bank’s favour, and the value of the account has grown to more than R500bn due to the rand depreciation since.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. The National Treasury plans to draw down from a special R500bn account for the first time to reduce debt and associated servicing costs over the next three years, according to the 2024 budget. Tabling his 2024 budget speech on Wednesday, finance minister Enoch Godongwana said government would draw down on the Gold […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":61467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-61468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nGovernment to tap into special account to reduce debt - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The National Treasury plans to draw down from a special R500bn account for the first time to reduce debt and associated ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Government to tap into special account to reduce debt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The National Treasury plans to draw down from a special R500bn account for the first time to reduce debt and associated ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-21T17:07:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-21T18:28:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/02\/sm_1708527057.873552.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"527\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Government to tap into special account to reduce debt\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-21T17:07:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-21T18:28:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt\"},\"wordCount\":418,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/02\/sm_1708527057.873552.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt\",\"name\":\"Government to tap into special account to reduce debt - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/02\/sm_1708527057.873552.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-21T17:07:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-21T18:28:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"The National Treasury plans to draw down from a special R500bn account for the first time to reduce debt and associated ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/02\/sm_1708527057.873552.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/02\/sm_1708527057.873552.jpg\",\"width\":750,\"height\":527,\"caption\":\"Government to tap into special account to reduce debt\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Government to tap into special account to reduce debt\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Government to tap into special account to reduce debt - South Africa","description":"The National Treasury plans to draw down from a special R500bn account for the first time to reduce debt and associated ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Government to tap into special account to reduce debt","og_description":"The National Treasury plans to draw down from a special R500bn account for the first time to reduce debt and associated ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2024-02-21T17:07:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-02-21T18:28:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":750,"height":527,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/02\/sm_1708527057.873552.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Government to tap into special account to reduce debt","datePublished":"2024-02-21T17:07:57+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-21T18:28:31+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt"},"wordCount":418,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/02\/sm_1708527057.873552.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-South-Africa","South-Africa"],"articleSection":["all news","policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt","name":"Government to tap into special account to reduce debt - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/02\/sm_1708527057.873552.jpg","datePublished":"2024-02-21T17:07:57+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-21T18:28:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"The National Treasury plans to draw down from a special R500bn account for the first time to reduce debt and associated ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/02\/sm_1708527057.873552.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/02\/sm_1708527057.873552.jpg","width":750,"height":527,"caption":"Government to tap into special account to reduce debt"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/government-to-tap-into-special-account-to-reduce-debt#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Government to tap into special account to reduce debt"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}