Luanda — The Economic Commission of the Cabinet Council approved Wednesday the 2024-2026 medium-term debt strategy for Angola, with the aim of meeting financing needs.
According to the communiqué of the meeting chaired by the county's president João Lourenço, the strategy aims to maintain a balance between reducing debt costs and keeping risk at sustainable levels in 2024, taking into account internal and external sources of funding.
Speaking to the press, the Finance Minister Vera Daves de Sousa, said the plan will define the criteria and guidelines for raising financing revenue, within the framework of the limits approved by the National Assembly.
According to the minister, the 2024-2026 medium-term debt strategy maintains some of the objectives of the current strategy, which need to be consolidated, such as fostering the domestic market and to extend the maturity of the domestic market.
Another gain from the previous strategy to be maintained, the minister said, is to attract financing with longer terms and lower interest rates, and active management of liabilities, whenever possible, to swap more expensive debt for cheaper ones, from long to short term, and to bring forward payments that can help free up cash.
The minister stressed that the new strategy aims to avoid contracting financing without having the capacity to absorb it and to avoid unnecessary payment of mobilization fees.
Vera Daves said that the aim is to secure a balance between external and internal financing favoring financing with a grace period of up to five years and a maturity of between 15 and 20 years and to reduce the concentration of debt servicing in the short term.
The minister pointed out that in the 2024 State Budget, debt servicing will consume around 60 percent, creating initiatives to gradually reduce the debt burden to between 30 and 45 percent.
Vera Daves de Sousa said that the debt strategy makes the limitation on contracting financing with raw material as collateral, such as oil, adding that a greater link between the financing of public finances and the objectives of sustainable development is expected to be created as well as an environmental protection and blue economy.
The National Assembly has set a debt limit of up to ten trillion kwanzas for the 2024 State Budget.
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Measures to stimulate the economy
At least 27 measures segmented into four areas to stimulate the economy have been implemented satisfactorily aimed at signaling and sharing with economic agents the national food safety priorities, the press release of the meeting has said.
The measures adopted aim to protect and create jobs and increase the competitiveness of products "made in Angola", seeking to meet the need to reduce the cost of living, in particular the purchase of foodstuffs. JFS/MCN/ADR/AMP
