Botswana will target an average economic growth rate of 4.4% in the next six years, an improvement of 0.6% on the current growth rate which stands at 3.8%, the country’s finance minister Kenneth Matambo said on Monday.
Matambo however said this increase still won’t be enough to end poverty in the southern African nation.
He said Botswana faces poverty, income inequality and unemployment, and is keen “to find measures that increase the growth of the economy beyond the projected level of 4.4 percent.”
Despite the country’s success in promoting sustainable economic growth prior to the global financial crisis of 2008/09, the three major development challenges have remained an albatross on the economy of the world’s top diamond producer by value.
Under the 11th National Development Plan, a medium-term socio economic framework covering the period from 2017 to 2022, Matambo said revenues are estimated at 372.3 billion pula ($341 billion) against an expenditure of 370.2 billion pula resulting in an expected slight budget surplus of 2.079 billion pula.
Under the previous plan, which covered 2009-2016, the minister said the economy achieved a growth rate of 3.9 percent from a target of 3.3 percent boosted by the non-mining sector.
Botswana has said its mining revenues are seen falling by 8 percent in 2016 due to depressed prices and weak demand.
