Budget austerity: a policy of uncertainty

Since the advent of the transition authority, the management of the public treasury has always been subjected to the policy of austerity. Concerned by and having experienced budget austerity during the last couple of years, members of the High Council of the Transition (CST) seriously addressed the issue while meeting the government team last Monday. They particularly asked the government about the reason of applying such a policy in a period when giant mining projects are reported to generate millions of dollar-revenues to the state.

According to the Minister of Finance, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, “no one knew exactly when the crisis would end, so we had to adopt a prudence policy or even budget austerity.” He also said that the budget austerity is due to the absence of external aids and to the decrease of internal revenues. Still according to the Minister, the finance bill for the year 2013 has already been passed and it is still subjected to major cuts, mostly in projects relating to public services. It is to be noted that the public spending in 2013 will be marked by an increase, amounting to 264.3 billion MGA compared to that of 2012. In short, with the continuing budget austerity policy, the economic life of the more than 20 million Malagasy in the year 2013 revolves around uncertainty, apprehension and more poverty.