SA budget chief resigns after helping stabilise debt

The head of South Africa’s budget office resigned last week, after helping National Treasury stabilise public debt.

Edgar Sishi handed in his resignation on Wednesday (25 February) – the day of Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s budget speech – and plans to take up a role at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

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National Treasury confirmed in an emailed response to questions that Sishi will leave the institution at the end of March.

Godongwana announced last week that South Africa’s ratio of debt to GDP will stabilise for the first time in almost two decades this fiscal year.

That has created space for National Treasury to support anaemic economic growth.

It’s also strengthened the case for further upgrades to the country’s credit rating – almost a decade after it was first cut to junk.

Read: Government wants a ‘credible and principle-led’ fiscal anchor

Sishi has been a central figure in the compilation of South Africa’s fiscal framework.

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