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Pretoria - South
Africa's revenue collection for the just-ended 2011/2012 financial year beat
targets, leading to a narrower budget deficit and contributing to a more
optimistic economic outlook, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Sunday.
The revenue service collected R742.7bn in the fiscal year
ended March 31, compared with a target of R738.7bn, Gordhan told a news
conference.
He said this resulted in a narrower estimated budget deficit
for Africa's biggest economy of 4.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2011/2012,
compared with the 4.8% projected in February.
"The preliminary revenue performance has firmed up the
forecast 2012 budget projections and therefore removes the requirement for
additional borrowing," Gordhan said.
"The revenue service has again served South Africa
extremely well. The numbers that they have... and what we see in the economy,
seems to indicate that we can have a slightly more optimistic view," he
added.
The Treasury sees a budget shortfall equal to 4.6% of GDP
for the 2012/2013 financial year that has just started, narrowing to 3.0% by
2014/2015.
In February the Treasury forecast economic growth of 2.7%
for 2012, while the Reserve Bank put out a more optimistic prediction of 3.0%
on Thursday.
"There is a cautious recovery... room for cautious optimism as far as the economy is concerned," Gordhan said on Sunday, but declined to say whether the government might further revise growth forecasts upwards.
