The Angolan Minister of Finance, Vera Daves de Sousa, began this Monday an official three-day visit to Portugal, which highlights the meeting with her Portuguese counterpart, Fernando Medina, announced the Angolan Ministry of Finance.
A visit by Vera Daves de Sousa, according to the press release, aims to strengthen ties of financial and technical cooperation, as well as interaction with Portuguese financial institutions, which have been funding various public projects included in the General State Budget .
The Angola-Portugal bilateral cooperation relationship, which the Angolan Government intends – as it says – to reinforce with this visit, is characterized, at a financial level, by a line of financing and, at a technical level, by the interaction between the tax administrations, within the of an Administrative Assistance Agreement in the area of customs (duties paid at customs)…
During its stay, the Angolan delegation has scheduled technical meetings with units of similar structures of the finance ministries of the two countries, with emphasis on meetings between study offices and between public institutes that manage the public debt.
The visit program also includes a meeting with the Direcção Geral de Contabilidade, with a view to addressing technical cooperation in matters such as the accounting system in Portugal, internal control, IT System Applied to Public Accounting, within the framework of the vision of Angola migrating to adoption of IPSAS (International Accounting Standards Applied to the Public Sector).
Vera Daves de Sousa is accompanied on this trip by the directors of the Studies and International Relations Office, Patrício Neto, of the National Directorate of Public Accounting, Sílvio Custódio, and of the Public Debt Management Unit, Dorivaldo Teixeira.
It should also be recalled that it was announced today that the Angolan State (read MPLA) will allocate 1.4 billion kwanzas (2.6 million euros) with the privatization of the fourth wave of industrial units installed in the Economic Zone (ZEE), whose privatization process has already been completed.
The Institute for the Management of Assets and State Participation (IGAPE) informs, in a statement released today, that it has completed the privatization of the fourth wave of industrial units in the Luanda-Bengo ZEE, with approval of proposals awarded to three competitors.
For the INDUCON industrial unit, the proposal of the competitor Casanova — Home & Office, Lda was approved, LABCONTROL was approved for the proposal of the competitor Angomelhor — Comércio e Indústria and the Tensão – BT unit the proposal of the competitor Utrastone, Lda.
These proposals, “whose payment guarantees have already been provided”, represent a cash inflow for the State in the global amount of 1,451,500,000 kwanzas, which “will be settled within 180 days of the respective signing of the contracts”, says IGAPE .
According to IGAPE, the bids for the acquisition of the INDUCAMAR, SIDUREX and PIVANGOLA units were not awarded because situations were detected that “indicate behavior by the competing entities that indicate practices restricting competition in public procurement”.
The Angolan Competition Regulatory Authority (ARC) has already been official on the matter, refers in the statement.
Units not awarded, underlines IGAPE, should be submitted to tender once more through electronic auction, “an instrument that has proven to be a transparent and quick mechanism” in the transfer of assets to the private sector.
The privatization of industrial units in the ZEE is part of the Government’s Privatization Program (ProPriv), approved in 2018, which includes the privatization of various assets and/or state-owned companies in the sectors of banking, insurance, industry, agriculture, telecommunications and others. .
IGAPE’s mission is to regulate and monitor the public business sector, implement the privatization and restructuring policy and programme, manage and control the State’s financial holdings and monitor and supervise the management of financial assets and public funds.
AFRICA AND ITS (HUGE) DEBT
A financial rating agency Fitch Ratings says that the 19 countries it analyzes in sub-Saharan Africa will have to pay 22.3 billion dollars of debt in 2023, representing 65% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“Total external debt payments next year in countries covered by Fitch Ratings will reach US$22.3 billion [21 mil milhões de euros]rising from US$21.4 billion [20,1 mil milhões de euros] 2022”, reads in the report sent to investors.
“We anticipate that average public debt in sub-Saharan Africa will improve to below 65% in 2023, following peaking at 72% in 2020, helped by economic recoveries following the pandemic, higher commodity prices and efforts to reduce budget deficits, but this level compares with an average of 57% in 2019, before the pandemic, and with less than 30% between 2007 and 2013”, stress the analysts.
According to an analysis of the public debt in the 19 sub-Saharan African countries covered by this financial rating agency owned by the same owners of the consultancy Fitch Solutions, almost half of the countries (42%) that Fitch assigns a ‘rating’ in the region ” have a debt-to-GDP ratio above 70%, while the average debt-to-income ratio will continue to be above 300%, twice the value in 2013”, proving the deterioration of the economic fundamentals of the countries in the region.
In the note, analysts warn of the deterioration in the prospects for the evolution of these economies, listing the risks that emerge from the significant global slowdown, high inflation and difficult financial conditions, in addition to the general weakening of the economies due to the effects of the pandemic, first, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more recently.
Fitch Ratings forecasts that average inflation in the region will drop from 8 to 9% this year to 5.5% in 2023 and that GDP growth will be around 4%, close to the average of 3.8% in the five years up to 2019, but well below the growth registered until 2014.
In the same report, Fitch Ratings warned that there are eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa with public debt payments in 2023 that represent a quarter of external reserves, including Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde.
“For the eight countries that reported reserves individually over the last six months, four (Angola, Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya and Mozambique) face external debt service payments in 2023 equivalent to more than a quarter of reported reserves, with Cabo Verde having to pay the equivalent of 23% of foreign reserves”, says Fitch Ratings.
Angola leads the volume of debt payments until 2025, always having to pay more than US$6 billion annually, around 5.6 billion euros, until 2025.
Thus, Angola, at the end of this year, will have paid US$6.48 billion, which will be added to next year’s US$6.7 billion, US$6.4 in 2024 and US$7.3 billion in 2025.
Sheet 8 with agencies
