Manuel Nunes Júnior, Minister of State for Economic Coordination
The Angolan Executive expects, for the current year 2021, the resumption of positive balance of payments, after having registered negative results in 2020, informed Tuesday June 15, in Luanda, the Minister of State for Economic Coordination, Manuel Nunes Júnior .
Speaking at a press conference on the "Fifth Assessment of the International Monetary Fund to the Expanded Assistance Program - EFF", the government official said that he foresees the recovery of Net International Reserves (RIL), which currently stand at USD 8 0.4 billion, a value that represents about 10 months of imports.
According to the Minister of State for Economic Coordination, due to the effects caused by Covid-19, in 2020 the country had a negative budget balance of 1.5%, even so below the forecast of the General State Budget (OGE) which it was a deficit of 4% per cent.
For the current year 2021, he added, the OGE forecasts a deficit of 2.3% of GDP. However, the most recent fiscal projections point to a positive budget balance of 2.6% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), meaning that this year the country returns to the trajectory of positive budget balances, started in 2018 and interrupted in 2020.
"On the other hand, the current account of the Balance of Payments, which was in deficit since 2014 started to show positive balances in 2018 and 2019. Therefore, it is very important to prudently manage internal accounts, he said, noting that in 2019 , in addition to a positive balance on the current account, there was a positive balance on the Balance of Payments.
As for the Exchange Rate, he informed, it has already reached its equilibrium value or is very close to it, remaining stable in recent months. He stressed that the difference between the official exchange rate of the US dollar and the one prevailing in the parallel market, which in 2017 was 150%, is currently 4%, and that in relation to the Euro this difference is only 0.5 %.
In fact, according to the minister of State, this is a significant step forward, with the adjustment of the exchange market being a measure of great strategic scope with regard to the change in Angola's economic structure.
“As an example, last year, despite the country having experienced a global contraction of around 5 percent of GDP, the agriculture sector grew by 5.6%, which is a fact for all. the titles notable, for having taken place in an extremely difficult year for the whole world”, he expressed.
On the other hand, he added, it is also important to emphasize that imports in 2020 generally contracted by around 34%, at a time when the contraction of food imports was around 23%.
"This decrease in food imports is a clear manifestation of the positive effect of the measures to stimulate the economy that the country has been developing and which reveals that the effort being made to increase national production is beginning to bear fruit ”, observed the Minister of State for Economic Coordination.
