Senate backs a cautious yet confident revision
In a solemn plenary session on 18 December, senators in Brazzaville voted in favour of the rectified finance bill for 2025, endorsing revenue projections of CFA 2 550.694 billion against expenditure of CFA 2 198.794 billion. The arithmetic yields an anticipated surplus of CFA 352 billion, a signal of renewed fiscal headroom at a moment when many economies continue to navigate global uncertainty. The text amends Law 47-2024 of 30 December 2024 as authorised under Article 29 of Organic Law 36-2017, thereby complying with the constitutional architecture governing public finances.
Fine-tuning priorities within the same budgetary architecture
Addressing the Upper House, Minister of Finance, Budget and Public Portfolio Christian Yoka stressed that the recalibration springs from “international constraints and national imperatives” that surfaced during the first half-year. The overall envelope and its 21 allocations across 148 programmes remain intact, yet specific investment lines have been repurposed. Resources that went unutilised during the early months of 2025 are now channelled into urgent urban roadworks in Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire, two growth poles whose mobility bottlenecks often dampen commercial dynamism. The minister insisted that the measure neither inflates spending nor departs from the thrust of the 2022-2025 National Development Plan; it merely shifts the focus to projects capable of delivering near-term multiplier effects.
Expenditure discipline: foreign missions under the microscope
Parliamentarians probed the executive on day-to-day spending efficiencies, with particular attention to official travel. For the 2025 financial year the government had initially pencilled in CFA 11 billion for overseas missions. Mandates processed up to 30 November amount to CFA 6.4 billion, translating into an execution rate of 58 percent. While acknowledging that the final picture will crystallise only at year-end, Christian Yoka portrayed the interim numbers as evidence of a maturing culture of cost containment. Senators nonetheless urged the cabinet to institutionalise such restraint beyond the current cycle so that savings can be redirected to social sectors.
Macro-stability and transparency applauded by the IMF
The finance minister reminded the chamber that Brazzaville continues to meet its undertakings under the programme concluded with the International Monetary Fund. According to the minister, successive IMF reviews have delivered favourable verdicts on macroeconomic stability, budgetary governance and debt transparency. He contended that, absent the Fund-supported framework, the country might have faced pronounced liquidity pressures jeopardising salary payments, public investment and access to external financing. In his words, the programme has acted as “a safety net that forestalled a deeper crisis”.
Social dividends remain a work in progress
While the macro aggregates are trending positively, legislators expressed concern that reforms are yet to translate fully into improved living standards. They called for enhanced oversight to ensure that fresh fiscal space benefits education, health and social protection. The Senate simultaneously adopted the bill approving the final accounts for the 2024 fiscal year, a move intended to close past ledgers before entering the 2026 budget cycle. In the months ahead, the Upper House plans to monitor the disbursement of investment credits and the on-the-ground execution of urban road projects, eager to verify that the surplus figures manifest in tangible public goods.