{"id":21389,"date":"2025-12-19T11:39:44","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T09:39:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/botswanas-economy-seen-shrinking-almost-1-in-2025-due-to-diamond-sector-woes\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:32:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:32:27","slug":"botswanas-economy-seen-shrinking-almost-1-in-2025-due-to-diamond-sector-woes","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/botswanas-economy-seen-shrinking-almost-1-in-2025-due-to-diamond-sector-woes\/","title":{"rendered":"Botswana’s economy seen shrinking almost 1% in 2025 due to diamond sector woes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Botswana’s government now forecasts an economic contraction of almost 1% this year as its key diamond sector continues to struggle, its Finance Minister <\/span>Ndaba Gaolathe said in a budget review on Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When the main budget was presented in February the Southern African country’s government had hoped for a 3.3% gross domestic product (GDP) expansion this year, rebounding from last year’s 3% contraction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But by mid-year it was projecting almost no growth as a prolonged downturn in the global diamond market showed no sign of abating.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Diamonds normally contribute around one-third of Botswana’s national revenues and three-quarters of its foreign exchange receipts.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“The macroeconomic outlook for the whole of 2025 remains fragile, with GDP projected to contract by 0.9%. This forecast reflects continued weakness in the diamond sector,” Gaolathe said.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Debt risks are mounting as persistent fiscal imbalances have necessitated increased borrowing, leading to a structurally higher debt trajectory,” he added.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Gaolathe said the government had responded with austerity measures to try to rein in expenditure, including by restricting an overtime allowance for civil servants and placing a moratorium on domestic and foreign travel.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He said more austerity measures would be announced in next year’s budget speech to redirect funds to areas that could generate future growth.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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–Reuters–<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14758,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-21389","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"Key diamond sector continues to struggle","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25078,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/21389\/revisions\/25078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=21389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}