Mozambique: External debt service to cost 91 billion meticais next year – Noticias

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Mozambique: External debt service to cost 91 billion meticais next year – Noticias
Mozambique: External debt service to cost 91 billion meticais next year – Noticias

Africa-Press – Mozambique. Next year, Mozambique will next year pay 91 billion meticais servicing its external debt, estimated at US$12.96 billion, the Minister of Economy and Finance announced on Monday.

Minister Adriano Maleiane was addressing the Parliament’s Commission on Agriculture, Economy and Environment at a hearing on the proposed Law on the 2022 Economic and Social Plan and State Budget.

Mozambique’s external debt stood at US$12.27 billion in 2019, the minister explained, against US$12.9 billion in 2018 and US$1.37 billion in 2017. This represented an average growth of around US$300 million a year.

At the domestic level, the debt service in meticais was also growing, from, for example, 40 billion meticais in 2019 to 47 billion meticais in 2020.

Maleiane noted that the country’s debt is influenced by two factors – the exchange and interest rates – both of which are beyond the government’s control.

Against this backdrop, the minister of Economy and Finance nevertheless believes that, with a great deal of effort, it is possible to move towards debt sustainability. In support of this, he stressed that the government, as a strategy, would not contract loans at anything but concessionary rates.

At current exchange rates, 91 billion meticais is the equivalente to around 1.4 billion US dollars.

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