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 742.7 billion rand ($96.77 billion) in the fiscal year ended March 31, compared with a target of 738.7 billion rand, Gordhan told a news conference.
He said this resulted in a narrower estimated budget deficit for Africa's biggest economy of 4.5 percent of gross domestic product for 2011/2012, compared with the 4.8 percent 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 percent of GDP for the 2012/2013 financial year that has just started, narrowing to 3.0 percent by 2014/2015.
In February the Treasury forecast economic growth of 2.7 percent for 2012, while the Reserve Bank put out a more optimistic prediction of 3.0 percent 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.
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