Minister of Finance Ipumbu Shiimi has tabled a N$72,8 billion for the 2020-2021 financial year. He says the budget aims to help Namibia fight the new Coronavirus effectively, support businesses and livelihoods and plant seeds for economic recovery. Minister Shiimi says the budget responds to elevated once-off needs prompted by COVID-19. He says non-interest operational spending has been allocated N$57,9 billion - an 8,8% increase from last year. Shiimi says the development budget stands at N$6,4 billion, an 8,4% increase from the same vote last year. The minister says the new budget will push the deficit 12,5% of GDP. But he says the once-off rise in deficit needed to respond effectively to COVID-19 challenges will be funded by a combination of Namibia's own savings, domestic and external borrowing. He says Namibia's debt stock will rise to N$117,5 billion or 68,7% of GDP. That is a 13,9 % increase from last year. But he says spending needs to be revised down in the future in order to stabilize the growth of public debt.