In the first nine months of this year, the Mozambican state’s operating expenses rose 9.4 per cent to 237.4 billion meticais, driven by the increase in salaries.
The figures are included in the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s (MEF) economic and social balance of the State Budget (OE) from January to September, and highlight that this performance corresponds to 74.9 per cent of all state spending planned for this year, valued at almost 316.9 billion meticais.
“Personnel expenses totalled 146.3 billion meticais, corresponding to 78.9% of the annual budget, with salaries reaching 80.4% and other personnel expenses 50.9%,” reads the document to which DE had access on Monday 27 November.
Compared to the same period in 2022, staff costs, according to the MEF, grew by 16.1 per cent in real terms, with wages and salaries growing by 17.9 per cent and other staff costs falling by 20.4 per cent.
Nevertheless, the document explains that the growth in personnel costs is justified by the effects of the implementation of the Single Salary Table (TSU) in the second half of 2022, as part of the public administration salary reform process.
In addition, during the nine months, goods and services absorbed 23.8 billion meticais, equivalent to 55.4% of the annual allocation and a decrease of 20.4% in real terms, compared to the same period in 2022.
In this regard, current transfers totalled 24.5 billion meticais, equivalent to 63% of the annual allocation and a decrease of 14.9% compared to the same period in 2022, due to the decrease in other transfers, other current expenditure, transfers to families and past financial years in the order of 60.7%, 49.3%, 17% and 9.2% respectively.
