“The 2023 budget of US$16 billion is wrong”, Noël Tshiani contradicts the Congolese Government
April 23, 2023
Kiki Kienge
By
Kiki Kienge
“I believe that the budget we have is a fake, it is fictitious, we will never realize that” . Said, Noël Tshiani in a television program.
Noël Tshiani Mwadiamvita , former candidate in the last presidential elections as a good economist, contradicts the Congolese Government which had presented the draft Finance Law 2023 before the National Assembly, through its Prime Minister, Sama Lukonde Kyenge, a record increase
in the budget since the country's independence:
“Never in the Democratic Republic of Congo have we reached such a level of budget forecasts” .
US$16 billion, an increase in the 2023 budget of more or less 32% compared to the previous year. Something that has been acclaimed by the militants of the ruling party, comparing the last budget under the regime of
Joseph Kabila , which was 4 billion $US, for Noël Tshiani, this budget is a make-up of the figures which risks to carry the country in economic chaos:
“The problem is that, we have planned the budget, the public revenues of this order, but the expenses of the State continue to commit them at a very high level taking into account a budget of 16 billion $US. From where there will always be a public deficit will be financed how, by the recourse to the printing press, from where the monetary depreciation. I would like people to wake up, you can't deceive people all the time, you can deceive for a little while, but people always end up discovering that there is something wrong. The budget we have is not realistic” .
Is Noel Tshiani right?
According to a large part of the population, yes. Since for some time now we have been witnessing:
- Delays in payment of salaries of civil servants.
- The Minister of Finance, Nicolas Kazadi, who wants to resort to a loan of US$70 million to finance public expenditure.
- The exchange rate of the US dollar, the currency used in the economy and the majority of businesses in the country, continues to increase dizzily. Today 1 $US is exchanged at 2,400 FC on the market. Increases in food prices follow that of the US dollar. In Greater Katanga and Greater Kasai, for example, the price of maize flour, a staple food, has increased more or less by 450%. A 25-kilogram bag that sold 2 months ago at 20,000 FC (+/- 10 $US), is trading today at 110,000 FC (+/- 45 $US). Thing that the Congolese Government seems to be in difficulty to solve for lack of financial means.
Some Congolese economic analysts even put forward the figure of US$4 billion as realistic, given that the prices of the minerals on which the country's budget is based would be falling for the year 2023.
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