As luck would have it, investment incentives and job creation measures by Botswana's new government could be paid for out of extra revenues from the recent recovery in the world diamond market. In February, Finance Minister Ponatshego Kedikilwe introduced the 1999-2000 (April-March) budget, he disclosed that the previous fiscal year had ended with the first deficit for 16 years, of 1.5 billion Pula (US$326 million), nearly 7 per cent of gross domestic product, because of unexpectedly low diamond revenues and lower central bank income from interest on foreign reserves.
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