What the Budget really means

People make the mistake of presuming the Budget to be classified information for the eyes of government officials only. The Ministry of Finance is in fact asking us to take more interest in the Budget and the ministry’s commentary on the 2008 Budget makes for happy reading. This year’s Budget (Frw607.5 billion) is 15 per cent greater than last year’s; less money is being borrowed, smaller amounts are allocated to recurrent spending while more is to be spent on development. Perhaps most welcome is the news that the domestic revenue component of the Budget has overtaken the external grants component.