Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene says South Africa’s shifting budget priorities will provide roughly half of the R50 billion in stimulus spending it plans to make by the end of its fiscal year in March.
Nene, who addressed a business forum in New York, said the rest of the fund would come from internal development finance institutions (DFIs).
For the first time he outlined the basic structure of the fund.
The Finance Minister says the funds will come from money that will be reprioritised from under performing government programmes and the rest from internal DFIs.
South Africa, under President Cyril Ramaphosa, who spoke at the forum, has launched a campaign to revitalize its economy which has fallen into a technical recession and has a 27% unemployment rate.
The recovery plan has been met with skepticism as it does not include increased spending or borrowing to meet the goal of creating jobs and funding infrastructure programmes.
However, Nene says that while opposition lawmakers are skeptical, the reception from the business sector at home and in New York has been positive.
