South Africa Eyes Half of $27 Billion Contingency Funds to Cut Debt
- Details expected to be announced in annual budget in February
- Treasury, central bank in talks to finalize terms of draw-down
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South Africa’s National Treasury is considering withdrawing as much as half of the 497 billion rand ($27.3 billion) of contingency reserves held by the central bank to help reduce the government’s debt load or fund public-sector wages.
The Treasury and central bank are close to agreeing on terms of the draw-down from the Gold & Foreign Exchange Contingency Reserve Account, according to people familiar with the discussions who asked not to be identified as they’re not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.