The monthly financial operations of the State have generated a « comfortable » surplus balance of 176 million US dollars at the end of April 2019. This is what the Central Bank of Congo (BCC) indicates at the end of the fourth meeting of the Committee. monetary policy (CPM). Governor Déogracias Mutombo chaired this meeting on Thursday, May 16, 2019.

« The balance of the general account of the Treasury has in April, a surplus balance of 307.6 billion CDF (or 176.07 million USD at the 2019 budget rate of 1,747 Congolese francs the US dollar) against a programmed surplus of 41.6 billion. The revenues mobilized amounted to CDF 1,037.9 billion while the expenditures made amounted to 703.3 billion, « reports the CPM in an official statement.

However, this financial situation of the State informs, cumulatively, a surplus of 284.7 billion CDF.

Two deficits, two surpluses in four months

The Monetary Policy Committee recalls that at the end of March 2019, the execution of State operations ended with a deficit of 54.4 billion CDF, while a slight surplus of 0.2 billion CDF.

Another deficit was recorded at the end of January 2019. That was 11.0 billion CDFs released following a revenue level of 564 billion CDF and expenses of 575 billion CDF.

The April budget surplus, the largest of the period, will have been supported by the fallout from the tax deadline of the month. This is the second surplus recorded since the beginning of 2019 after the end of February which was 22.1 billion CDF.

Controversial budget surplus

For some opinion, these figures released by the monetary authority are the subject of criticism and doubts about their reliability. While some talk about makeup, others mention the thesis of freezing some restrictive expenditure to build this « dummy » budget surplus.  »

It is against the backdrop of this controversy that the Central Bank wanted to restore the truth. As to say that this is the financial situation of the State actually consolidated and stopped on April 30, 2019. The figures made public in the condensed weekly statistics being provisional.

All in all, the national executive is forced to redouble its efforts to observe strict budgetary discipline, both through the rationalization of expenditures and the mobilization of revenues. Everything should be done in a transparent manner in a permanent momentum of accountability.

Eric TSHIKUMA