DR Congo gov't to reduce 2016 state budget

Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) Prime Minister Augustin Matata Ponyo has proposed amendments to the finance bill to reduce the 2016 state budget in order to avert the hyper inflation of the kind that the country experienced in 1990s.

The DR Congo government chief who made the proposals on Monday before parliament, said that due to the worsening macro-economic environment and the dwindling public revenues as well as the drop in international prices of oil and minerals, it was necessary to amend the finance bill passed in December 2015 by parliament.

The initial budget stood at 8.6 billion U.S. dollars, but the government wants to reduce it to 6 billion dollars, Ponyo said while presenting the proposal to parliament.

Matata equally made reference to the recommendations of international financial institutions such as the IMF and World Bank, urging African countries to reduce their public spending due to the precarious economic situation of these countries. Endit