{"id":9536,"date":"2012-04-01T15:45:16","date_gmt":"2012-04-01T13:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/04\/update-1-s-africa-revenue-above-target-budget-deficit-lower\/"},"modified":"2012-04-01T15:45:16","modified_gmt":"2012-04-01T13:45:16","slug":"update-1-s-africa-revenue-above-target-budget-deficit-lower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-1-s-africa-revenue-above-target-budget-deficit-lower\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 1-S.Africa revenue above target, budget deficit lower"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Gordhan sees more optimistic outlook for economy<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Trims 2011\/2012 deficit forecast to 4.5 percent<\/p>\n<p> (Recasts with details, background)<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">PRETORIA, April 1<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s revenue<br \/>\ncollection for the just ended 2011\/2012 financial year beat<br \/>\ntargets, leading to a narrower budget deficit and contributing<br \/>\nto a more optimistic economic outlook, Finance Minister Pravin<br \/>\nGordhan said on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The revenue service collected 742.7 billion rand ($96.77<br \/>\nbillion) in the fiscal year ended March 31, compared with a<br \/>\ntarget of 738.7 billion rand, Gordhan told a news conference.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>He said this resulted in a narrower estimated budget deficit<br \/>\nfor Africa&#8217;s biggest economy of 4.5 percent of gross domestic<br \/>\nproduct for 2011\/2012, compared with the 4.8 percent projected<br \/>\nin February.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The preliminary revenue performance has firmed up the<br \/>\nforecast 2012 budget projections and therefore removes the<br \/>\nrequirement for additional borrowing,&#8221; Gordhan said.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The revenue service has again served South Africa extremely<br \/>\nwell. The numbers that they have &#8230; and what we see in the<br \/>\neconomy, seems to indicate that we can have a slightly more<br \/>\noptimistic view,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Treasury sees a budget shortfall equal to 4.6 percent of<br \/>\nGDP for the 2012\/2013 financial year that has just started,<br \/>\nnarrowing to 3.0 percent by 2014\/2015.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In February the Treasury forecast economic growth of 2.7<br \/>\npercent for 2012, while the Reserve Bank put out a more<br \/>\noptimistic prediction of 3.0 percent on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There is a cautious recovery &#8230; room for cautious optimism<br \/>\nas far as the economy is concerned,&#8221; Gordhan said on Sunday, but<br \/>\ndeclined to say whether the government might further revise<br \/>\ngrowth forecasts upwards.<br \/>\n($1 = 7.6745 South African rand)\t<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Stella Mapenzauswa, editing by Ed Stoddard)<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\n<p>         \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Gordhan sees more optimistic outlook for economy * Trims 2011\/2012 deficit forecast to 4.5 percent (Recasts with details, background) PRETORIA, April 1 (Reuters) &#8211; South Africa&#8217;s revenue collection for the just ended 2011\/2012 financial year beat targets, leading to a narrower budget deficit and contributing to a more optimistic economic outlook, Finance Minister Pravin [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9536","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9536\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}