Manuel: An 'honest' budget
Feb 11 2009 16:14
Marc Hasenfuss
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Cape Town - Finance minister Trevor Manuel described his 2009 Budget as "fundamentally honest" at a pre-speech press conference at Parliament on Wednesday morning.
Reminding journalists that it was an election year, Manuel noted: "It could have been easy to spin a budget without substance... but this represents the most fundamentally honest position we can take."
With reference to the prevailing world economic crisis and the fact that "stimulus is fashionable", Manuel said the budget proposals were largely about facing down demons. "We understand our place in the world, and we have taken decisions that will carry us forward."
Asked about the deficit of almost 4%, Manuel said it was very difficult to cut spending programmes. But he said treasury had made a strong call to the incoming administration to undertake a comprehensive spending review.
"I think this review will take up a lot of the time of the incoming finance minister. "
He stressed the budget was the product of the incredible hard work of people employed in the Treasury department.
"All I can hope for is that the systems we have developed can stand up to scrutiny and counter-act capricious behaviour."
- Fin24.com
