{"id":23518,"date":"2026-02-09T15:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T13:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/botswana-budget-projects-economic-rebound-this-year\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:18","slug":"botswana-budget-projects-economic-rebound-this-year","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/botswana-budget-projects-economic-rebound-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Botswana budget projects economic rebound this year"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Botswana&#8217;s economy is expected to grow 3.1% in 2026, rebounding after two successive years of contraction, Finance Minister Ndaba Gaolathe said in a budget speech on Monday.<\/div>\n<div>\nThe Southern African country&#8217;s economy, long viewed as an African success story, has been hit hard by a prolonged downturn in the global diamond market, driven by economic uncertainty and the rising popularity of lab-grown stones.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Diamonds typically account for about one-third of Botswana&#8217;s national revenue and three-quarters of its foreign exchange earnings.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Gaolathe told lawmakers on Monday that without major economic reforms growth was likely to remain below potential in the short to medium term.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It was urgent to accelerate economic diversification and strengthen non-mining growth sources, he continued.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Botswana&#8217;s diamond stockpile is nearly double its target inventory levels amid persistent low prices, limiting its ability to increase production in the short term to support the economy.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14758,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-23518","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":null,"news_description":"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23518","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\/23518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26459,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23518\/revisions\/26459"}],"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=23518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}