Africa-Press – Angola. The Economic Commission of the Council of Minister approved, this Wednesday, in Luanda, the medium-term debt strategy for the period 2024-2026, with the aim of meeting financing needs.
According to the statement from the meeting, chaired by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, the strategy aims to maintain a balance between reducing debt costs and maintaining risk at sustainable levels in 2024, taking into account internal and external sources of financing.
Speaking to the press, the Minister of Finance, Vera Daves de Sousa, clarified that the plan will define the criteria and benchmarks for capturing financing revenue, within the framework of the ceilings approved by the National Assembly.
He stated that the 2024-2026 medium-term debt strategy maintains some objectives of the current strategy, which need to be consolidated, such as promoting the domestic market and extending maturity in the domestic market.
According to the government official, another gain from the previous strategy to be maintained is the capture of financing with longer terms and lower interest rates, and the active management of liabilities, aiming, whenever possible, to exchange more expensive debt for more cheap, long to short term and advance payments that can help free up cash.
He stressed that the new strategy must avoid contracting financing without the capacity to absorb it, paying unnecessarily mobilization commissions.
The minister said that the aim is to ensure a balance between external and internal financing, to prioritize financing with a grace period of up to five years and with a maturity of between 15 and 20 years and to reduce the concentration of debt service in the short term.
He highlighted that, in the 2024 OGE, debt service will consume around 60%, creating initiatives that will gradually allow the debt burden to be reduced by between 30% and 45%.
Vera Daves de Sousa stated that the debt strategy makes the limitation on contracting financing with raw material collateral, such as oil, even more firm.
Hopes for a greater link between the financing of public finances and the objectives of sustainable development, environmental protection and the blue economy.
The National Assembly limited the debt limit to up to ten billion kwanzas for the 2024 OGE.
Measures to stimulate the economy
Twenty-seven measures, segmented into four areas, to stimulate the economy, were implemented satisfactorily, according to the Press Release of the Meeting of the Economic Committee of the Council of Ministers.
According to the note, the measures adopted aim to signal and share with economic agents national food security priorities.
They also 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 food.
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