Maputo — Mozambique's positive economic performance in the first half of this year shows that the country has managed to resist the world financial crisis, declared Finance Minister Manuel Chang on 3 October, at the opening of a plenary session of the Development Observatory.

Mozambique's economic stability, Chang said, "is the fruit of the successful implementation of macro-economic and financial reforms that are in line with the international environment".

The determination of the government, plus the aid driven by its foreign partners, had allowed the economy to grow at an annual rate of 7.3 per cent, while inflation fell to historically low levels.

The low inflation, Chang said, was testimony to the stability of the Mozambican currency, the metical, against the US dollar and the South African rand.