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South Africa Plans to Reprioritize $3.5 Billion of Spending

South Africa Plans to Reprioritize $3.5 Billion of Spending

(Bloomberg) -- South Africa will reprioritize 50 billion rand ($3.5 billion) of spending as part of a plan to revive its struggling economy and create jobs for the 27 percent of the workforce who are unemployed.

South Africa Plans to Reprioritize $3.5 Billion of Spending

The government will focus on developing new infrastructure, with 400 billion rand to be spent over the next three fiscal years, and galvanize more funding from private investors, President Cyril Ramaphosa said at a briefing in Pretoria on Friday.

“Public finances have been constrained, limiting the ability of government to expand economic and social development,” the president said. “We do not have fiscal space to continue pouring money into the economy. We have had to resort to reprioritizing budget.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Thembisile Dzonzi in Johannesburg at tdzonzi@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Karl Maier at kmaier2@bloomberg.net, Mike Cohen, Ana Monteiro

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