East African Business Week (Kampala)
5 November 2007
Bujumbura — Burundi's Finance minister Ms Clotilde Nizigama said last week the Government was unable to keep its promise of increasing civil servants' salaries by 34%.
Nizigama said given the current state of public finances in the country, the Government was no longer able to keep the promise, made by President Pierre Nkurunziza, on May 1 during the International Worker's Day celebrations.
A rise in the wage bill, she said, would make the country's macro-economic situation precarious with the total wage bill exceeding the Gross Domestic Product GDP.
"For the time being, we are at 11% (of the GDP) and have to make sacrifices to ensure that wages are in conformity with the country's means of production," she said.
The Confederacy of Burundi Trade Unions (COSYBU) has threatened to call for an "indefinite" strike in the near future to compel Government to deliver on its promise.
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