By the evidence of South Sudan's budget, presented to parliament in late June, the country's finance ministry has lost its mind. This time last year, the Government of South Sudan put forward what it described as a "two-step budget" that would boost social services and economic growth "in a responsible manner." That budget, covering July 2013 to June 2014, consisted of six months of austerity while oil production recovered from a 15-month shut-down. Spending limits were set at SSP555m ($184m) a month for the first half of the year, rising to SSP1bn by early 2014 "if sufficient resources are available." It seems that this common-sense approach hasn't lasted long. Most press coverage of the new budget, covering July 2014 to June 2015, has focused on a reduction in the size of the budget from to SSP11.3bn from SSP17.3bn last year. But a closer look at the figures reveals that this is anything but an austerity budget. The government is actually planning a 2.5% increase in spending on government agencies - from SSP9,733m to SSP9,968m. While the increase in spending is marginal, the government is banking on an extraordinary increase in revenues that completely ignores the realities of its economic challenges. [...]
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