IMF snaps up top National Treasury official

The head of South Africa’s budget office resigned last week, after helping the National Treasury stabilise public debt.

Edgar Sishi handed in his resignation on 25 February – the day of Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s budget speech – and plans to take up a role at the International Monetary Fund, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

The National Treasury confirmed in an emailed response to questions that Sishi will leave the institution at the end of March.

Godongwana announced last week that South Africa’s ratio of debt to gross domestic will stabilize for the first time in almost two decades this fiscal year.

That’s created space for the Treasury to support anemic economic growth. It’s also strengthened the case for further upgrades to the country’s credit rating — almost a decade after it was first cut to junk.

Sishi has been a central figure in the compilation of South Africa’s fiscal framework.