A budget on the brink

In the last nine financial years, the budget has run consecutive deficits amounting to hundreds of billions of Pula, each one contributing to the draining of government’s savings and necessitating increasing levels of public debt. The upcoming 2026-27 financial year, which kicks off on April 1, will not be different and is expected to incur a mammoth deficit of P26.4 billion or nearly nine percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). These are not ordinary times.

Yet, history reminds us that this nation has navigated difficult waters before and did so by clinging firmly to the principles of prudence and macroeconomic stability. From independence in 1966, Botswana chose a path few resource-rich countries managed to sustain. Diamond revenues were not treated as windfalls for reckless expansion, but as capital to be managed with caution. The establishment of fiscal rules,…